Blizzard
by DBlaviken
Summary: Miyamoto Kazuki just wants a quiet life. He knows that the world is full of liars who always break their promises - that is until one day when he's forced into a situation that will test his distrusting nature and his disdain for Demon Slayers. He may not like working for the Demon Slayers but if he had to be one... then he will be one that can keep his promises.
1. Prologue

Asakusa is a place notorious for its crowded and adaptive citizens, filled with machinery and life. The improvement of technology is the reason as to why the place was so bright and brimming with life. The emperor's efforts have brought human technology very far.

However, even the best places to live have their own set of problems, and this is not a normal circumstance of a 'high number of thieves'. This case is morbidly different, the problem comes from the high number of people missing lately, with no trace of their whereabouts.

For around two months, there have been reports that missing victims have appeared on the doorstep of their families as no more than a decapitated head, with perfect cuts around their neck and no blood left inside of them.

Yui couldn't be more delighted by watching their horrified faces from the shadows.

That and her elusive nature earned her the nickname "The Ghost Demon". Quite fitting for her style to murder people quickly.

She wouldn't have been able to do this on her own, it was all thanks to Muzan Kibutsuji's kindness that she was able to gain the means to do so. He granted her a power she never knew existed, an unimaginable power that enabled her to accomplish incredible feats.

Without his help, Yui would still have been living with her abusive parents in a poor village. She would have to bear her weakness as a frail human for the rest of her life. No more. Now, she will do what she wants. No restraints. No rules.

Her method of killing was very simple. Since the alleys of Asakusa were very dark, nobody could see her overall monstrous appearance, only her silhouette. In the shadows, she seemed like a relatively tall woman with a long kimono decorated with flower ornaments.

At night, people - especially men - want to enjoy life as much as possible. Eating food, getting laid and gambling. In the streets of Asakusa, men who have stooped low will do anything for pleasure. Men like that are not willing to pay for a highly expensive oiran on their night. Instead, they seek those women unfit for the oiran houses, those women relegated to the alleys. There, men can have fun for a relatively cheap price.

"N-No please, l-let me go!" a man begged as he tried to remove the hand that clenched around his throat.

Sometimes, men aren't so lucky. Red eyes, sharp teeth, cracks on both sides of her face with veins bulging from her throat. All of this masked with her lustrous long silver hair.

"But why, darling~?" Yui grinned as she wickedly licked her lips. "We're just getting started, right, _right?!_"

"Damn, monster!" the man snarled as he swung his fist at full force, hitting Yui's face hard. She recoiled back not from the pain, but because she was surprised by the fact that the man showed resistance.

Satisfied that his punch connected, the man grinned victoriously. Women were easy to break after all.

Yui didn't move for a while. However, she didn't lose her grip. In fact, she made it tighter to the point that the man started to gargle on his own blood as Yui's nails pierced his trachea.

"You actually went out of your way to hit a woman..." Yui whispered, her tone no longer carrying her playful inflection. Rage burned behind her bloodshot eyes. "You men are all the same... _**FUCKING ANIMALS!**_"

As Yui finished her sentence, she tightened her grip and started to crush the man's throat, but not so hard as to kill him instantly. In a fit of rage, she used all of her demonic strength and pulled the man's head off.

The man's screams died out instantly. Blood splattered everywhere as Yui ripped off the man's skull pulling out his spinal cord. The blood from the man's body began to flow out like a fountain as she kicked the torso away with so much force that it cracked the wall in front of her. The body fell over into a mushy mess, as all the bones were shattered.

Minutes passed as Yui breathed heavily, looking around at her work. All the blood would make anyone faint from the horror.

"Ehehe~" she chuckled, using her free bloodied hand as she painted her face. "Just another day of work... It never gets old."

As she smiled at the mess she made, she felt slightly disappointed. Her fit of rage didn't let her cut her victim's head off perfectly.

"Shit, his spine came out." She frowned as she grabbed the spine from the man's head and carefully detached it, smiling in satisfaction. "Perfect!"

She couldn't leave such a mess behind, someone would eventually find out, so she extended her arm.

All the blood throughout the alley seemed to levitate slowly towards Yui, as if by some strange force. As the blood seeped into her skin, her appearance regressed from the bloody red into the pristine state she had maintained before.

With this method, she managed to cover her tracks for nearly two months.

"Another one to the body count," she said, playing around with the decapitated head as if she was playing with a ball, still chuckling. "I can't wait to get my place in the ranks of the Twelve Demon Moons. I can get more praise from that man once I reach my goal..."

She was certain that she would get it. Any Demon that would attempt her strategy was bound to get attention from the Demon Slayer Corps, and they would easily get tracked by them, but with Yui's ability, that wasn't an issue.

The Demon Slayer Corps. An organization of fools who dare to oppose the demon race. They were weak and frail compared to the superiority of demons. If Yui ever found one of them, she would take her sweet time before killing them.

"Well then, it's time to take him back to where he belongs," Yui said, referring to the head resting on her hand. She ripped some cloth off her kimono and wrapped it around her victim's head. She always did this to them out of the public eye and it had worked ever since she started. It was now a hobby to her.

However, just before she was about to leave the alley, she felt a chill down her spine. Her demonic instincts were screaming at her to move. Wasting no time, she leaped forward and turned around only to see a shadow coming to her at such speed that she barely had time to react. In the nick of time, she jumped and used her demonic strength to dig her nails into the wall.

She winced as she felt a sting in her neck and dropped the head she was carrying. She flinched as she touched her the part that hurt. Pain, it was an unmistakable, yet foreign feeling she had long forgotten. The cut on her neck wasn't deep, it was shallow, but it was regenerating at a slow rate and that worried her.

From the high ground, she glared at her attacker. It was a man—no, a brat. He had short snowy hair with blue strands and wore a pair of small glasses over his icy blue eyes. Over his average-build body, he wore a navy blue yukata as his only choice of clothing.

Yui would have mistaken the brat as a normal human citizen if it wasn't for the katana he was carrying. She knew a Nichirin Sword when she saw one. It was a beautiful sight to behold though. The sword was of a bright sky blue color that shone through the night, with white snowflake ornaments engraved on the blade. The blade also had a curved hilt, which combined perfectly with the weapon's design.

Yui would have stopped to compliment the boy on the design of the blade if she wasn't so unbelievably furious with him. How dare a pathetic worm like him damage her? Yui could feel the veins bulging from her neck, her blood lust rising immensely. The kid turned to look at her dead in the eye, his emotionless face only making him even more fearsome.

"I missed."

Yui's eye twitched. Did this kid have the annoying habit to state the obvious? Or was it just a weak attempt to provoke her? Either way, she wouldn't let this brat get to her that easy. If he really was a Demon Slayer, then she needed to incapacitate him first so she could torture him later.

"You will regret that, brat. I can't wait to have tons of fun with you~" Yui said coyly, before she let out a bloodlust-filled grin and leaped downward to her target. She was so fast that it surprised the kid, prompting him to dive forward, barely managing to evade a fatal blow to his spinal cord. Still, the damage was already done: the demoness managed to scratch his skin which was all that she needed.

She extended her arm.

"Blood Demon Art: _Vampirism!_"

After Yui shouted those words, the blood from the kid's wound started to levitate towards her, slowly sucking the life out of him. The kid fell to his knees as he seemed to slowly lose his strength.

"Ahaha! What do you think of my ability, it's good isn't it~?" Yui cackled, her face red from the complete ecstasy she was feeling from sucking the blood. It was not Marechi, but it was still blood of high quality. Yui then got closer to her immobilized target, enjoying every moment she got to taste his blood. "Not bad, you will certainly satisfy my appetite for at least three days with your blood."

Still, Yui stopped as she saw that the kid was standing up, seemingly unaware that his blood was being fed to her. What came next surprised her: the kid started to slowly breathe, taking a combat stance and staring at her with no emotion present on his face.

"Breath of Ice, First Form: Freezing Lunge."

The kid lunged at her like a bullet. She was taken aback with the brat's sudden change of speed, but she was prepared this time.

She dodged the obvious attempt to strike her neck, but the brat wasn't done and he recovered fast. Once again, he charged, this time with a different position.

Yui dodged one strike.

Two strikes.

Eight strikes.

Sooner or later she was going to get slashed and she knew this. Startled, she climbed the walls with her nails, where the kid couldn't lay a finger on her. He was strong, but Yui wasn't going to admit that. A human worm like him didn't deserve a single bit of praise from her, even worse if he was part of the Demon Slayer Corps. The fact that this kid even had a chance against her pissed her off to no end.

Screw the torture, she was going to end him now.

"Damn insect, I'm going to suck every last drop of blood out of your worthless body!" she snarled, reactivating her Blood Demon Art causing the blood of the wound on the kid's back to fly towards Yui's skin. She hated that she wasn't strong enough to rip him apart in close quarters, so she chose the safer option to stall him until he bled out.

"You're strong," the brat said, taking again his battle stance. When Yui saw this, she understood now why she was so startled before.

She felt it.

She felt the cold, calculating anger on each swing.

Sweating, she tried to augment the effects of her powers to incapacitate the brat faster. How was he not out of commission yet? She already drank two liters of blood out of him, any normal human would at least be dizzy at this point.

The kid started to breathe again.

"Breath of Ice, Fourth Form: _Ice path._"

Yui saw him; the brat was getting closer towards her, but how? She was ten meters up in the air, there is no way a kid like him could reach her. She would have noticed if her target moved from her spot.

Her eyes widened— the worm was _wall climbing!_ He was sliding the coarse walls as if they were full of grease. The movement was fast, fluid and unyielding.

Panicking, she kicked bricks from the building to throw them towards her attacker. "Get away from me!" she shrieked to deaf ears. The kid kept coming like an unstoppable force. Nothing fazed him, he had his eyes set on her alone. Yui wanted to scream, move, or even try to find a way to attack him, but she was too scared to move. This was the first time she ever felt vulnerable after becoming a demon.

It all happened at a bullet's pace.

The cold steel passing through her neck, her vision getting blurry as she fell to the floor. Her headless body falling beside her, and the kid gracefully jumping down beside her. She couldn't move, everything felt numb.

'Is this it?' she thought as her body started to crumble away. The kid sheathing his blade back and making his way towards the head she was carrying earlier. Not like she cared at this point, but what was he doing?

The kid lit a match.

'Ah, so that's it.'

It was some kind of act of honor. If you don't know someone's name, then the best way to honor them is to burn what's left of them. It was a sad way to go, but at least it showed that the brat—no, the man—had some self-awareness of his surroundings and wasn't some mindless killing machine.

Unlike her.

Well, at least she would finally die after the burning sensation was over.

'I'm sorry Lord Muzan, I failed you…'

She finally closed her eyes, as the final parts of her body crumbled away to dust.

* * *

The times that Tanjiro Kamado felt overwhelmed were a lot, but nothing could be compared to what was happening now.

After defeating The Swamp Demon, he was tasked into another mission right away—as if his first mission wasn't exhausting enough. He was tasked with going to the big city of Tokyo, all the way into one of its most crowded districts, Asakusa. Being a boy who lived in the mountains for all of his life, Tanjiro didn't take too kindly to the atmosphere of the city. He felt dizzy just standing by the crowd of people.

His sister, Nezuko Kamado, probably shared the same feeling as him, as she was on the verge of falling face first to the ground. While Nezuko was a demon, she was a special case that didn't need to consume humans in order to survive, much to Tanjiro's relief. However, that meant that Nezuko had to sleep at almost every moment to control her demonic urges. Because of this, it surprised Tanjiro that his sister wanted to be outside of her box.

On his way to Asakusa, Nezuko kept scratching the inside of the box a couple of times, urging him to get her out. She probably was excited to see a new place like the city, and that was a rare case considering that she rarely got out of her sun-protecting box. So Tanjiro complied and let her out, which was why he felt instant regret once they foot into Tokyo.

Tanjiro was trying to process why the city was so active at night. Most of the people that live in villages go back to their homes once evening ends. They want to rest from a hard day of work, so the streets are dark, eerie, and abandoned. In Asakusa, things were different: the streets were full of life and activity, which was why he felt out of place being there.

Most of the time, Tanjiro would focus on the job at hand, which was finding the notorious "Ghost Demon" that resided in the city.

That could wait. He needed some food now, fast.

"Let's go, Nezuko," Tanjiro said, gently pulling his sister away from the crowd.

On his way to the district, he spotted a food cart that didn't have that many people in it. Backtracking a bit, he spotted it, a wooden food cart under a lampost. The stand itself contained simple decorations like food pamphlets with a very limited menu of food: udon, soba, and ramen.

As Tanjiro approached the cart, he could see that it was run by a man—no, a teenager no more than 15 years old. He had snow-white hair with blue strands, icy blue eyes that were covered by a pair of half rim glasses. As soon as he got close to the stand, he could see that the boy tensed a bit, narrowing his eyes as he studied both Tanjiro and Nezuko.

He was fixing his gaze particularly at the katana he was carrying.

Oh no, he forgot! The Demon Slayer Corps weren't recognized by the government, so nobody should know of its existence. That means that he was illegally carrying a katana in a public place, jeopardizing his mission.

"A-ah, don't mind this, I'll just put it away slowly…" Tanjiro stuttered, nervously putting the sword on his back—as if that mattered at this point.

"Hot or cold?"

That confused Tanjiro a bit as he'd barely regained his composure when he heard the boy speak, so he let out a surprised "What?"

"Your udon, you want it hot or cold?" the boy repeated, with no hint of emotion present in his voice. He was briefly glaring at Nezuko, but quickly returning his gaze to Tanjiro, something that he took notice of.

"Oh, cold, with yam topping, please." Tanjiro smiled, the dizziness coming back as he started to feel the weight of the city once again.

The boy nodded and started to work on the noodles. Tanjiro took a seat on a nearby bench and started to recover his energy while waiting for his food. Who would have thought that it was a good idea to send a mountain boy to a full crowded city? The Demon Slayers sure had a hard line of work when it came to slaying demons. They must be prepared to go to all kinds of places to slay all kinds of evil demons.

Not like Tanjiro wanted to complain anyway, he was prepared to slay the demons that deserve it. His path would eventually lead to Muzan, and by then, he hoped that he would be more than ready.

That didn't matter now, he was here to focus on other matters, mainly concerning the "Ghost Demon" that resided here in Asakusa. His crow didn't give him much detail, just that this demon had been lurking around in the district for at least 2 months feeding itself with the population. That enough made Tanjiro determined to track down this demon and put an end to its frenzy before it killed more innocent people.

Tanjiro came back to his senses as he heard the sound of a sword unsheathing behind his back. He turned around and gawked as he saw that the udon boy was working skillfully on his dish, but that wasn't what surprised him the most. He was cutting the dough with a huge sky blue knife that looked like a katana.

No wait, it was a katana! A nichirin one to boot.

Ignoring the fact of how weird it was to cut food with a combat weapon, Tanjiro now had a wave of questions to ask the boy. Why does he have a nichirin sword? Is he a slayer? Does he know that Nezuko is a demon by the way he was briefly frowning when he looked at her? He had to ask the most important question first.

"Isn't it illegal to carry a weapon in a public place?" Tanjiro asked, curious about his choice of cooking tool.

"Clearance," the boy said, not even sparing him a glance.

A small but audible "Oh" escaped from Tanjiro's mouth as he didn't dare to say anything else and went back to the bench. There, he just kept staring at the boy and watched him work.

'He smells as if he has encountered a demon recently…' Tanjiro thought as he focused on his acute sense of smell. He knew the smell of demon blood when it came up, it was unmistakable.

The boy himself wasn't a demon, he smelled and looked human, so him being the culprit was out of the question. That didn't mean that he wasn't involved with the demon. Tanjirou got up from his bench and approached the boy, who was currently focused on his work.

"Hey, could I have a minute of your time please?"

No response. The boy kept focused on his work as if he wasn't acknowledging his presence.

"Hey, did you hear me?" Tanjiro asked again, this time raising his voice a little higher. "I asked if I can talk to you for a second."

"I'm hearing you," the boy uttered monotonically, still not looking at Tanjiro.

He was getting slightly irritated. It was rude not to look at someone when they were talking to you. He didn't mind that much though, as he just needed to ask a simple question.

"Do you know something about the 'Ghost Demon'?"

The boy briefly glanced at Tanjiro before getting back on the noodles. "Yeah, I killed her."

Tanjiro blinked once. Then twice.

"Y-you killed her?!" Tanjiro gawked as he caught up with what the boy meant, eliciting a nod from the other.

He was surprised that a boy of his age managed to kill a demon. He was dressed like any normal civilian and he didn't even have the corps uniform on him. Of course, there was a possibility that he might have a spare back at his place—the nichirin sword he had only backed up Tanjiro's theory.

"Here is your udon. That will be 200 yen." Tanjiro was brought out of his trance as he was handed the neatly decorated bowl. The noodles had the yam toppings he asked for, which were neatly cut. And it took no time at all. He wondered how much experience the boy had.

"Thank you." He grinned, grabbing the bowl with no hesitation, leaving the money on the counter. "Hey, what you said to me just added more questions. How did you manage to kill the demon? Are you a slayer from the corps?"

The boy frowned at the mention of the corps. The smell he emitted went from neutral to angry really quick. "I have no reason to answer anything. Especially to someone who travels with a demon."

This time, Tanjiro's face twisted into a scowl. "She's my sister and she hasn't killed a human in her time as a demon."

The boy sighed. "I don't know about that, but since she hasn't caused trouble here, she's not my problem," he said in a dismissive tone, then pulled out a rag and started to clean his counter. "Finish up, and then get out of Asakusa. You have no business here anymore."

"You should at least send a crow and report it to the corps," Tanjiro said, his face showing worry. "That way you can let them know that you have taken care of the problems here."

"I don't care about the corps!" The boy raised his voice as Tanjiro recoiled back at the sudden change. "I'm not a slayer nor do I want to have anything to do with them. I'm just a normal citizen who happens to keep the city clean of demons. Got it?"

"That's far from normal though…" Tanjiro mused, trying to defuse the situation.

"Don't try to get smart with me," the boy hissed before taking a deep breath, seemingly calming himself down. "Listen. You seem nice and all, but I really don't want to do anything with the corps. Just finish your bowl, take your demon sister, and don't bother me anymore."

"I… alright then," Tanjiro muttered, looking like a deflated balloon.

"Good. If you'll excuse me, I have to keep working," the boy said, then pointed towards the counter. "You can leave the bowl there once you're finished, I'll take care of the rest."

Tanjiro nodded as the boy went back to work. He was sad that this boy didn't use his strength to help the corps. Even if Tanjiro hadn't watched him fight, he could tell by the smell that this boy was strong. His sense of smell let him tell what kind of person he was dealing with, but it didn't let him tell what happened in said person's past.

Whatever this boy might've gone through in the past, it must have been something horrible that he didn't trust even the Demon Slayer Corps.

Are the corps that bad? No, that cannot be the case. Tanjiro hadn't met with anyone of the corps yet, but if they had someone as kind and caring as Urokodaki, then he could definitely trust them. It must be some kind of personal problem this boy had with them.

Tanjiro let out a frustrated sigh, sitting on the bench beside his sister, who was now sleeping.

"So she can sleep while sitting down…" he muttered to himself while staring at her. He didn't know that Nezuko had this habit back when they were living with their family, they always slept on the floor. Then again, Nezuko had been acting weird ever since she became a demon, so it was no surprise to him.

As Tanjiro was about to gobble up his udon bowl, he smelled something awful that froze him on the spot. The smell was so repulsive, yet very familiar, that he dropped the bowl to the floor. Without noticing the mess he made, he stood up, sweating profusely as he tried to track the source of the smell. It was back in the main district.

He couldn't forget whose smell this was. It was him. Muzan Kibutsuji, the man who killed his family.

"Hey, you broke my bowl…"

He could hear the boy hissing behind him, but Tanjiro paid him no heed. Baring his teeth, he stood up and stormed out as fast as he could.

He could not let Muzan escape this time. Not after all the innocent lives he took.

He. Will. Be. Put. Down.

* * *

"Okay Kazuki, pull yourself together. It's just a stroke of bad luck, nothing more."

Kazuki rubbed his temples as he watched the slayer run away after breaking his bowl. He could chase after him and maybe catch up to him, but that would probably not be a good idea. Kazuki had a normal yukata, while the slayers had clothes that allowed them specifically to move freely in combat.

Still, Kazuki was pissed. A Demon Slayer comes and asks questions that are very uncomfortable for him to even answer, then he decides to order a bowl of udon, doesn't even eat it, and drops it to the floor without reason. All of that and Kazuki only got merely 200 yen, and considering how much that bowl was worth, it was more of a loss rather than a benefit.

What bugged Kazuki the most was how desperate the slayer seemed when he stormed off. It was like a kid throwing a tantrum because his mom didn't get him what he wanted. He even left his sister and a weird box behind.

'Should I kill her?'

Those were Kazuki's first thoughts as he watched the sleeping demon. His job was to keep every threat away from Asakusa, so everyone could live peacefully. This girl was acting off: no demon could be harmless for an extended period of time, most of them went berserk after the moment they transformed. There were special cases though, and he knew a certain pair of harmless demons, but outside of them, every demon he met was crazy for human flesh.

Kazuki could slice her head off and avoid a possible threat that might harm people in the future—that way, many would be safe. Or he could wait until that slayer came back and took her away to who knows where, risking the lives of many people wherever this demon went.

She was the sister of that slayer, if he went on his way and killed her, then he would have to face his anger, and it was not a good idea to fight a trained slayer. Not like he wasn't trained himself, but it would be too much trouble to handle.

'Still, she seems… harmless. Way too harmless,' Kazuki thought. Maybe this is something that can catch that person's interest, it could be that this is what she sought all this time.

It was too risky. This girl could be a threat to her for all Kazuki knew, and she may not be the one demon she needed. He might have been thinking about this too hard, but he was quite the salesman. After all, he managed to maintain his udon stand for three years, ever since he was 12 years old.

'I-Is it really the right thing to do? Kill her?' Kazuki thought, uncertain of what he should do. If this demon was alone, with no company at all, then he wouldn't hesitate to take her down. He wasn't uncertain because he was scared of her older brother.

It was because they were siblings.

Sibling bonds were a thing that Kazuki hated, an old wound that he had on his soul, something that wouldn't heal easily. However, as much as he hated them, bonds were not something Kazuki wished to destroy, and if it were genuine, the more reason to keep them. He had no way of knowing how strong the bonds were with this family, but he could ask the slayer once he returned.

Should he take that gamble? Letting the girl live?

The superior men understand what it's right, the inferior men understand what will sell.

This is what he believed was right. He would let her live, for the moment.

He exhaled harshly, calming himself down as he felt the stress go out from his body. He then turned to the demoness, who was now awake and staring at him with a neutral expression, the muzzle making it hard for Kazuki to see what face she was making.

Well, better do it now that she's awake.

He went to the stand and took his katana that he always carried with him. His trusted weapon that he used to kill demons and after very careful cleaning, to cook. Weird as it may be, it worked for him ten times better than a regular knife.

Kazuki went closer to the demon girl, glaring down as he was inspecting her every move. The fact that the girl had no reaction after seeing his sword unsettled him. Any normal demon would have launched at him or do some strange trick with their abilities. This wasn't the case.

"So…" Kazuki started, fixing his glasses. "Demon girl, can you understand me?"

She tilted her head and nodded. That was progress, if she could understand basic human language then he wouldn't have to waste drawing or using body language.

"Good, I have some questions for you. Hope you can answer them, your life depends on it after all," he said, ignoring the girl's widened eyes. "Have you killed any humans in your time as a demon?"

The girl shook her head.

"Hmm… why should I believe you?" Kazuki squinted, trying to see something, anything of the girl's movements to see the truth.

"Mmph. Mmph!"

Kazuki slowly nodded at the girl's gruntings. "Great, I got nothing out of that," he said, making the girl deflate.

"So, limited vocabulary, this could be a problem…" Kazuki mused to himself as he started to gather his thoughts. If the demon girl couldn't speak, then it could be hard to tell if she was lying or not. After all, the tone someone gives when they're talking is the biggest lie detector.

He sighed. Things had become harder for him now, but they all had a solution. He turned to address the girl once again.

"Listen, I can't ignore your brother now because he broke one of my bowls. And those aren't cheap. I can't also say that I believe you because I can't understand anything you say, so I cannot be sure if you're lying or not," he said, making the girl moan in sadness. The girl would be pouting if it wasn't for that muzzle.

Kazuki was taken aback at the girl's attitude. Every action she took, every sound she made, it all felt completely human. Yet her appearance marked her as a demon, her unnaturally shaped eyes and her very long nails are a giveaway.

She was an enigma.

'Maybe Tamayo-san knows what's going on.'

As Kazuki tried to rack his brains to solve this demon's behavior, he could see from the corner of his eye that it was a short old lady approaching him. Kazuki knew who she was, Sato Maya, the owner of the flower shop in the main district. She looked very scared, which was unhealthy for someone who was nearly at the age of eighty.

"Sato-san, what brings you here?" Kazuki asked, helping her to sit down beside the demon girl. "You should calm down, it's not healthy for someone of your age to get this alarmed. Stay here, I will make you some tea."

"I… thank you, Kazuki," Maya said, exhaling as she placed a hand on her chest, trying to calm herself down.

Kazuki quickly made his way to make a special herbal tea of buckwheat, a plant that is used to make soba noodles. He had soba ingredients on his stand because people—who were mostly drunk—couldn't read the sign that said 'udon only' on the cart, so they often asked Kazuki to make them soba, which he didn't specialize in.

Still, the more money, the better. He eventually gave in, so soba was branded as a 'secret' where only the ones who asked for it may receive it.

So Kazuki used the buckwheat and started to boil water, making the tea for Maya in little to no time. It would help her to calm down so she could talk without pressure.

As he returned to the bench, Kazuki felt the urge to drop the hot teacup as he watched Maya pet the demon girl like it was her own child. And the girl liked it, her cheekbones rose every time Maya started to tickle her, scratch her head, and play with her cheeks.

'Another thing to add, this demon girl has the mind of a child…'

Kazuki found himself staring for a good two minutes at how the scene was unfolding. It was only a matter of time until the old lady noticed him.

"Kazuki, who is this girl?" Maya asked, grinning as she played with the demon girl.

Kazuki blinked. "Oh. Uh. She's… my friend's little sister." he managed to say, albeit awkwardly. He wasn't used to lying.

"I see… your friend certainly has a cute little sister," Maya said softly.

Kazuki rolled his eyes, handing the cup of tea to the old lady. "Right… here's your tea Sato-san. It's made from soba, it'll help you calm your nerves."

Maya smiled as she stopped petting the demon girl, much to her dismay. She then took the teacup and started to drink its contents. She gave a soothing smile as she seemed to enter a state of total calmness.

"Feeling better now?" Kazuki asked, careful not to alarm her about whatever happened to her.

"Yes, I'm better, thank you Kazuki. I assume you want to hear what happened to make me that afraid?" she asked, to which Kazuki nodded. "I figured. Well… I was going to close the shop for the day as usual. Everything seemed crowded and normal, until…"

Kazuki placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder as soon as he heard her voice becoming shaky, making the woman relax.

"Then I saw a woman getting attacked out of nowhere. T-The man was literally trying to eat her alive!"

Kazuki's eyes widened. This was obviously the work of a demon, no man would ever think of eating someone out of the blue. Still, all this didn't add up. If this demon was eating people in the main district, then he would've heard the news sooner.

"Trying? What do you mean by that?" Kazuki inquired, this time a little more impatient than before.

"W-Well, luckily a young kid of approximately your age stepped in and subdued the man. The woman got slightly hurt, but no one was killed thanks to him… I don't really know what happened next, the boy then disappeared out of thin air alongside the couple," Maya explained as her whole body trembled. "T-They were a married couple, Kazuki… I don't know why all of a sudden the husband decided to try and eat her! Why caused him to try that?"

"Something inhuman…" Kazuki muttered, earning him a confused look from the old lady. It was a normal thing for demons to attack humans, but to go from normal to insane in a span of seconds? That was another story.

That could mean that the man was turned into a demon at that exact same moment… and there were only a few demons capable of that vicious transformation.

'This is bad news. There is also the fact that no human is able to just disappear into thin air, so what Sato-san saw at the end was most likely an illusion. Looks like Tamayo-san was there when it happened.'

Kazuki's eyes widened, anger coursed through his body as he started to put the pieces together. 'The only possible explanation for this vicious transformation can be via an Upper Moon demon, or… Muzan Kibutsuji.'

He took a deep breath as he let the information sink in. No one, not even the Pillars, were ready to face an Upper Moon Demon, not least the progenitor of all demons himself.

"Kazuki?"

Kazuki broke out of his trance and turned to Maya, who was looking at him in worry.

"Are you alright dear?" Maya asked as she handed him a handkerchief. "You're sweating…"

He took the handkerchief and started to wipe the sweat from his forehead. "I-I'm alright Sato-san. It's just a bad feeling, that's all."

Kazuki quickly took his sheath and bowed to the old lady. "Sorry Sato-san, I have to go now. The tea is free so you don't have to pay for anything."

Maya nodded, seemingly satisfied with Kazuki's concern. "Well… someone as old as me shouldn't be prying into others business," she said, smiling as she kept drinking the tea. "Take care Kazuki."

Kazuki nodded, walking towards the demon girl who looked at him impassively. "We have to go, now. Follow me, I know a doctor who can help you with your… demon problems."

The girl tilted her head, seemingly not understanding what he was saying. Kazuki placed a palm on his face. He forgot that this demon had the mind of a child.

"If your brother was the one that Sato-san mentioned, then I think I know where he will go," he said. What he said wasn't a lie, in fact, it was a half-truth. If this girl's brother ran towards the main district because he somehow sensed a threat, then there was a good chance that he was the one who stepped in.

The girl beamed, standing up as she started to follow him.

Kazuki sighed, knowing that he'd got involved in something that he thought wasn't his problem. He really had the worst luck.

* * *

"Nezuko. Nezuko?!" Tanjiro shouted, scouting every corner of the area for his sister.

After his unpleasant encounter with Muzan, Tanjiro ran to fetch his sister in order to get help from the demon lady who had helped him contain the unfortunate soul of a man that got turned. She said that she could help him regarding the problem with Nezuko, and he didn't want to waste an amazing opportunity.

When he didn't find her sleeping on the bench as she should have been, he started to panic. Even the box he used to carry her was empty. The udon boy wasn't here either.

He could discard the option that the boy kidnapped her. He didn't have that type of smell when he first met him. Or maybe he did take her somewhere, but without ill intent.

"Hey…"

Tanjiro turned to the voice that addressed him and blinked at the sight in front of him. A boy with pale green and black hair, with lavender-colored eyes. He was one of the pair of demons that he encountered when he had his incident in the main district.

He could trust him.

"Come with me, your sister is already with Tamayo-sama," he said, frowning deeply as he looked at Tanjiro. "Stop looking so desperate, or you'll make her worry about something so petty."

Tanjiro perked up at the mention of Nezuko. "Wait, she's already with her?" he shouted, running towards the demon boy in an attempt to shake him. "Please tell me where!"

"Don't touch me with your filthy hands!" the boy yelled, chopping Tanjiro in the chest, stopping him in his tracks. "Kazuki took your sister to Tamayo-sama to save some time. Do you understand that? Good. Let's go."

Tanjiro didn't know if the boy was unaware that he almost killed him with that chop. It left him wheezing for air for a good 30 seconds before resuming his walk. That left him with a reminder that he was dealing with an actual demon and not a boy on the streets.

As they walked towards an alley in a remote place, Tanjiro finally caught up with what the demon boy said earlier.

"Who's Kazuki?" Tanjiro asked, "I didn't meet anyone with that name before."

"Seriously?!" the boy snarled, not turning to look at him. "From what he told me, you already met him. Short stature, white hair with blue strands, disgustingly ugly, and wears glasses."

Tanjiro blinked as he heard the ugly part until the description started to match to a certain boy he met earlier. "Oh, the udon boy? So his name is Kazuki?"

He nodded. "That's right. That stuck-up brat…" Tanjiro let out an awkward smile as he smelled the clear anger from the demon boy. "Anyway, we're here."

Tanjiro gasped as he saw that they were standing in front of a wall, a plain one at that. If this is the place they were going to go? It was located in a remote area, away from the district; it made sense, a place well hidden from any demons and humans who could try to locate them.

Surprisingly, the demon boy just walked forward, which should have resulted in him crashing into the wall but to Tanjiro's surprise, he just phased through it.

Tanjiro gawked as he witnessed something out of a fairy tale. Then again, he just recently faced a demon who could swim on land, so he wasn't that shocked when he remembered the demon's abilities.

He walked forward and phased through the wall. Tanjiro's eyes widened as he saw a fairly big two-story house. It was plain looking, as it had almost no decorations on the outside, only a weird paper talisman stuck on top of the door. It made sense, they didn't want something so notable in their house.

As Tanjiro and the demon boy made their way inside, they immediately entered one of the rooms. Inside, Tanjiro was more than relieved. Nezuko was rolling on the ground on her own, bored out of her mind, until she perked up and ran towards her brother.

"Nezuko!" Tanjiro grinned, dropping whatever worry he had as he went to hug his sister. "Thank god I finally found you, I was worried…"

Nezuko squealed, happily hugging his brother back. As Tanjiro turned to look around the room, he jumped as he found himself being stared at by three people. The pair of demons, and the boy he met earlier, Kazuki.

Realizing his mistake, Tanjiro quickly bowed. "I- I'm very sorry for entering so abruptly!"

The woman merely gave him a sweet smile. "That's quite alright, it really shows how much you care for your sister."

Tanjiro smiled back, although it quickly disappeared as he felt the killer intent from the demon boy.

Someone has a very short temper…

He then turned to Kazuki, who was too busy speaking with Tamayo. Tanjiro remembered what Kazuki had done and quickly made his way towards him. As soon as he got close to him, Kazuki frowned which made Tanjiro recoil back a bit. Still, it took more than that to intimidate him!

"Thank you for bringing Nezuko here," Tanjiro said, smiling as he bowed in gratitude. "I was worried that something might have happened to her."

Kazuki narrowed his eyes. "You still owe me 2000 yen for that plate you broke," he said, "and please, don't bow, it feels weird."

Tanjiro resisted the urge to scream. 2000 yen? That was absurd! "2000 yen, that much?!"

"In reality, that bowl was worth 1800 yen." Kazuki scowled, crossing his arms. "But the fact that you didn't eat my udon pissed me off."

"I'm so sorry, here is the money!" Tanjiro bowed apologetically, pulling out the spare money Urokodaki had given him.

"Kazuki…" He heard the lady's tone shift into a more harsh one. "What did I tell you about charging people unfairly?"

That caused Kazuki to shiver in fear as he lowered his head a bit. Tanjiro could swear he saw his face going beet red from embarrassment. "I-I guess I can only charge you the fair amount," Kazuki stammered, taking the money from Tanjiro's hand. He left some coins there. "...So I'll take 1800 yen for it."

"See what you did?!" the demon boy shouted his displeasure. "You made Tamayo-sama mad!"

"Yushiro, you upset her on a daily basis by harassing anyone that comes even slightly close to her," Kazuki deadpanned as his blue eyes were boring through the demon boy in anger.

"What was that?!"

"Stop it. Both of you," Tamayo ordered, causing both of the boys to squeak. It was like watching the leader of a wolf pack calming down a bunch of troublesome cubs.

"Yes…"

'Not gonna lie, they're like a pretty unstable family…' Tanjiro thought, making an awkward smile as he didn't know how to respond to the situation.

Tamayo sighed. "Sorry about that, both of them can be a bit noisy sometimes," she said, glaring daggers at both of the boys. "This is not how I wanted introductions to be going."

Their shoulders slumped. "We apologize…"

"As you already know, my name is Tamayo. I'm a doctor. These boys are Kazuki and Yushiro respectively. Boys, this is Tanjiro Kamado." Tamayo shook her head in disapproval, then turned to look at Tanjiro. "Please, let us go into a more suitable place."

Tanjiro nodded as they all went to the living room. On their way, Tanjiro saw the woman that was attacked earlier by her husband, who luckily didn't sustain any serious injury, but it may leave her with a deep emotional scar. The poor soul.

So they were sitting in the living room, and Tanjiro could tell that things were different between Kazuki and Yushiro. They had no hate for each other regarding their stupid argument earlier, so it could safely be said that them bickering about stuff was a normal thing around here.

"Kamado," Kazuki started, arms crossed. "I want you to tell me the truth regarding this subject. Don't lie."

Tanjiro nodded slowly, unsure where this was going.

"The demon you saw in the main district. Was it an Upper Moon or Muzan Kibutsuji?"

Tanjiro blinked. Upper Moon? What was that, a special type of demon that was different from the ones he had fought?

"Upper Moons? What are those?" Tanjiro asked, curious and intrigued.

"They haven't told you about them?" Kazuki asked, only for Tanjiro to shake his head. "Strange, that's basic knowledge for every slayer. Very well, we will explain to you everything about them."

And so, Tanjiro spent the next 10 minutes learning about the existence of the Twelve Demon Moons. They were the strongest demons in existence, excluding the progenitor of demons himself. They were divided into two sections: Upper Ranks and Lower Ranks. These were divided into six ranks, from weakest to strongest.

Slaying a Lower Rank Moon was pretty much a requirement to join the Pillars, so Tanjiro assumed that they were very strong. Still, they were manageable for the corps, as the pillars could take care of them.

On the other hand, The Upper Moons were another story. Tamayo and Kazuki didn't have much information on them because no one had lived to tell the tale. They were so strong that they had managed to slay a lot of Pillars through the ages.

Those tiny details made Tanjiro quiver, it would take a great deal of training and experience to even rival their strength. That didn't mean he could not defeat them.

"I see." Tanjiro gulped, shocked by this new information. "The demon I saw in the district...was Muzan Kibutsuji."

The silence in the room was suffocating for him. No one said a single word as they were trying to process the information. Kazuki closed his eyes, as he clenched his yukata tightly. Yushiro was scowling deeply. Tamayo was apparently the calmest one, but Tanjiro could smell the anger from her when he mentioned that name.

It made him wonder how much she suffered when she met Muzan.

"I see…" Kazuki was the first to break the silence. "That's certainly a problem, but an Upper Moon could have been worse."

"Because Muzan moves on throughout multiple places?" Tanjiro asked, trying to follow his lead.

Kazuki nodded. "Exactly. Muzan is not prone to stay in one place where the corps could easily find him. It is how he has stayed hidden for years," he explained. "Upper Moons can settle in one place if they want to, luring slayers and civilians. Sure, Muzan kills a lot of people, but he's not as chaotic as his servants. Muzan's long gone from here."

"That makes sense," Tanjiro said, feeling frustrated for not being able to do more when he encountered him.

"In any case," Tamayo spoke up, gaining the attention of both boys. "It's time to tell you why we are so different from the normal demons you have encountered."

Tamayo started to explain every single detail about the alterations of her body, how she turned Yushiro into a demon and Muzan's curse. She talked about why she needed blood to survive despite her alterations, and how Yushiro needed less blood than her.

Tanjiro understood and was amazed by how Tamayo could suppress her urges for devouring humans. She had been doing this for more than 200 years. Not only that, she was a medic, so that meant that she saved people from death.

Ironic, a demon saving people from death instead of bringing it to them. It's almost a miracle.

Regardless, Tamayo was someone that he could safely trust.

So Tanjiro asked the crucial question. Can he turn his sister back into a human?

"Yes, there is a way to turn her back human," Tamayo said, giving him a look of worry. "But it's not going to be easy…"

"And we're not helping him."

Everyone, including Tamayo, turned to look at Kazuki, who spoke his clear displeasure on the situation. Tanjiro felt his blood boil as he heard what Kazuki said. He was very close to turning Nezuko back to human, so why didn't Kazuki want to help?

Tamayo remained silent. She looked saddened about something, but Tanjiro couldn't picture what.

"Kazuki are you questioning Tamayo-sama's decision?" Yushiro hissed as he stood up. "You're not the one to make the decisions for her!"

"As far as I'm concerned, this is also my decision!" Kazuki argued back, standing at the same eye level as Yushiro. "You know that I want nothing to do with Demon Slayers. The pain I- we went through because of them is not something I can forgive."

This time, Yushiro remained silent. For the short time that Tanjiro had known the demon boy, he'd been prone to take Tamayo's side no matter what, and he was always up with some argument in her favor. To see him fall silent meant that Kazuki was somehow right.

"Kazuki," Tamayo spoke up, "you noticed it too, right? Nezuko's behavior is very different from any demons created by Muzan. She could be the one to put an end to all this and finally make a cure to end all this. I'm sorry, but we have to do this."

Kazuki scowled as he turned to glare at Tanjiro, the latter instinctively taking his sister's hand. The anger and sadness the boy was leaking were too much for him to handle that his instincts shouted at him to protect Nezuko.

Kazuki's face softened as his whole body trembled. It seemed like he managed to calm himself down, somehow.

"I- I have to go get some fresh air." With that, Kazuki stormed out of the room, leaving a confused Tanjiro behind. Tamayo could only sigh and Yushiro went back to sit down, not saying a single word.

"Why is he like that?" Tanjiro finally spoke, still uneasy about it.

"It is not my place to say," Tamayo sighed, making Tanjiro deflate. "Kazuki has a long story before he came to me. When he said that he didn't want to work with the Demon Slayers, he was serious about it. Also…" Tamayo turned to look at Nezuko, who was playing with her toes the entire time. "It seems like seeing the sibling bonds between you two has triggered some painful memories from him."

"Is he going to be okay?" Tanjiro asked, glancing towards the window, which showed an unmoving Kazuki in a meditation pose.

"Yes, he's stronger than he looks, and he has a big heart," Tamayo said, letting out a sad smile. "He may not show it, but he's a kind person on the inside, even if he himself doesn't know it."

* * *

Kazuki sat there, unsure about what to do in this situation. In these types of situations, he would always try to meditate to forget about past problems.

He was supposed to live his life without useless hauntings, so why were slayers getting in the way? They kept pestering over and over, never leaving him alone. He sighed. He envied those people who could live their lives like normal and were oblivious to the supernatural.

If only his brother… stayed normal.

He shook his head. No, those moments were already lost within the blizzard.

He would try to focus on the matter at hand, which was to help Tanjiro, for the moment. If Tamayo wanted to help him to revert Nezuko back to human, then Kazuki would do anything in his power and knowledge to help. He owed her that much.

It was almost funny. Sibling bonds were something that always made Kazuki angry. However, while he hated how strong the bond between Tanjiro and Nezuko was, he didn't want it to break. It was an odd feeling.

"Oh, look what we have here."

Not wasting time being surprised, Kazuki quickly reacted as he got in his combat stance in the blink of an eye. Meditation did help with his concentration.

His instincts did not lie. As he opened his eyes, he could see that there were two figures standing in front of him. One was a young man whose most notable trait was that his eyes were embedded to each of his hands. He also had arrow-like pupils—probably related to his ability. The other one was a young girl with cat-like pupils and unnaturally bright hazel eyes. She seemed to be playing with a temari ball like a child, with a sickening smile on her face.

No hard guesses required. Kazuki could easily identify that they were demons.

"He doesn't seem like the guy we're looking for, but he's definitely here, Susamaru," the arrow demon said, in a baritone voice as he seemed to scan the area with his hands. "The boy with the Hanafuda earrings…"

It was not wise to reveal their plans in front of an opponent. Those earrings only belonged to one person who he recently met, Tanjiro Kamado.

He would ask them later. Once he'd cleaved their heads off. Right now, he only had one thing in mind.

Kill. Demons.

"I'll look for our target, you can deal with this nonsense." The arrow demon grinned, disappearing from Kazuki's sight.

"Okie-dokie, Yahaba~!" Susamaru grinned as she seemed to sense Kazuki's killing intent, throwing the temari balls at full force. "LET'S PLAY!"

* * *

AN: Hello everyone, this is my take on the story of KNY with my OC included. To clarify, I do not intend to copy every single detail the canon has to offer, after all, Butterfly Effect exists right? Expect a lot of changes to the canon and its characters. Criticism is very appreciated.

Huge thanks to Basileus, Mad-Reader, 666-HyuugaNeji-999 and Dccrulez for their help in polishing my story. Without them, this would've been a mess to read. Be sure to go to the official Kimetsu no Yaiba Discord server, they offer huge writing tips too!


	2. Warriors

A bullet has enough force to penetrate someone's skin to easily damage them. They're so powerful that they can leave a permanent scar on anyone unfortunate enough to get hit by a small pellet in a non-vital area.

Susamaru's temari balls were akin to the force of a bullet, and three times the normal size. A normal bullet would be enough to make the human muscles constrict to absorb the huge amount of energy coming from their speed, but with the size of the temari balls, they would leave something worse than a hole on the victim; it would absolutely rip apart anyone who got hit by them.

No matter where the ball was aimed, if it hit, it was death. Kazuki didn't have to get hit to know this, it was common sense.

Even if the balls were coming at him very fast, it wasn't something that he couldn't handle.

"Ahahaha~!" Susamaru cackled as she was watching Kazuki dodging her balls. "Not bad. You're actually pretty fast for a kid, but dodging is not enough."

Kazuki felt uneasy, he got careless. He felt the wind pressure suddenly fade behind him, which meant that the balls changed their original trajectory.

"Breath of Ice, Fourth Form: Ice Path - Surface."

Using his special zori sandals, he was able to slide on floors that were not too arid.

Normally, the Fourth Form could only be used on walls where he was being propelled by the force of gravity, but he would be unfit to call himself a warrior if he only followed his brother's teachings.

Still, it was futile; no matter how fast he was, he would have to stop at some point and those balls didn't seem like they were going to stop anytime soon. The force of the impact would make him fly and crash to the house, but a little damage wouldn't kill him.

"Breath of Water, Second Form: Water Wheel!"

That was until Kazuki saw a boy flying towards him, cleanly cutting both of the temari balls in one swoop. Tanjiro took a defensive stance and placed his back towards Kazuki's, both of them never blinking once.

"You're okay?" Tanjiro asked as Tamayo, Yushiro, and Nezuko stepped out of the house. Kazuki frowned as he took notice that the sliced balls were still vibrating on the floor.

"Kamado, at the count of three, jump forward…" Kazuki said, watching the balls carefully.

"One."

The balls moved.

"THREE!"

As those words came out, both warriors were already both successfully dodging Susamaru's balls. The temari balls started to regenerate completely and went back to the demon, much to Tanjiro's dismay.

Kazuki however, was already setting his plans into motion.

"Yushiro, I need to get my bag. I need you to try and endure as much as possible," Kazuki demanded, making Yushiro frown at the absurdity of the plan.

"Are you serious? Do you intend to get Tamayo-sama and me killed?!"

"Well, all of us are going to die if we don't take these bastards down!" Kazuki argued back, looking at Yushiro with a look that said that he wasn't taking a "no" for an answer.

"Tch, fine! Just hurry up."

"Kamado, can you take care of yourself for a while?" Kazuki asked, blankly looking at the slayer.

Tanijro sent him a reassuring smile, full of confidence. "Leave it to us, we'll wait for you."

"One more thing, there was a second demon that came with her, but I don't know where he went… Still, I don't think he's idle and doing nothing, he has to be supporting the temari demon with his Blood Art," Kazuki said, causing Yushiro to immediately perk up.

"I see, so that's why there were arrows— Watch out!"

Yushiro dived towards Tamayo and crashed into the wall towards the house, leaving Kazuki and Tanjiro to fend for themselves.

"I have no time for this… I really need to go and get that bag," Kazuki growled as he was surrounded by the temari balls that were surrounding both like a tornado.

"Breath of Water, Sixth Form: _Whirlpool!_"

Tanjiro made a strong spin which slashed the spinning balls, but that didn't stop them as the balls shot forward, hitting both him and Kazuki on the face and torso. Before Kazuki could question what the hell he was doing, he saw him pointing towards a tree.

"Nezuko, he's over there!"

The demon girl nodded and used her demonic speed to quickly lunge towards the tree, ripping it from the earth and forcing it down. From the top, Yahaba fell on his face towards the ground and Nezuko kicked him in the face. Blood splattered everywhere as the demon's head blew up from the force of the kick.

Susamaru took notice of this and threw her temari balls towards Nezuko, causing Tanjiro to quickly make a run for it. He pulled Nezuko's kimono and dragged her away from the projectiles, quickly dashing his way back to Kazuki's position.

"Ehhhh? What are you doing Yahaba~? There is no fun in killing them if you get caught off guard..." Susamaru pouted as Yahaba's head started to regenerate from the damage.

"Tch, I got careless, I let that filth get too close to me…" Yahaba said in annoyance as the remaining parts of his head got fully healed.

Kazuki frowned, noting that the regeneration rate of these demons was far above normal, which meant they couldn't go for reckless tactics that easily. However, there was something that interested him more.

"How did you find him?" Kazuki whispered, careful to not make too much noise. "That demon was clearly out of sight; he didn't even move."

"I have an acute sense of smell; nothing can hide from me," Tanjiro said with a little pride in his tone of voice.

Kazuki was genuinely impressed. This guy had a bag of useful tricks on his own. In this situation, that couldn't have come in a better time.

"This is so much fun!" Susamaru laughed as she undressed from her kimono, only leaving herself with a black sash on her chest. Her body started to mutate as she grew more arms on both sides, making it a total of six.

Kazuki bared his teeth in annoyance. This battle was becoming harder by the minute. He hated when demons showed more resistance than they normally would.

Tanjiro showed a mix of shock and disgust at the demon's mutation. "You're kidding me… six arms?!"

"My body is all tingly! Please show me more of your moves, ahaha~!" Susamaru cackled, causing Kazuki to sweat nervously. "Your heads will serve me well as a trophy!"

"You take everything as a trophy, Susamaru…" Yahaba muttered as he made a wide grin that unsettled the warriors. "But this is not that bad of an idea, human filth will tire too fast and dodging will only result in them getting killed. Amusing really, humans really are pathetic. They act according to their instinct and always end up getting killed, no matter who they are. Just look at their faces—"

As Yahaba kept mocking them, Kazuki's anger started to rise up to the point that the veins on his forehead started to show. One could make fun of his attire, his face or even his hair.

But no one should ever look down on him.

"This idiot is really starting to irritate me…" Kazuki scowled as he took a deep loud breath. "Breath of Ice, First Form: _Freezing Lunge!_"

Kazuki dashed at Yahaba and impaled him in the chest, leaving the demon so surprised that he wasn't able to move for a second. Kazuki then kicked him in the guts with such force that it sent the demon flying a couple of meters away from Susamaru.

Before Susamaru could react, Tanjiro acted fast and closed the gap between them, trying to go for the head. However, the temari girl wasn't as distracted as Yahaba, so she acted fast and threw four balls at the slayer's face. Tanjiro backflipped away, dodging Susamaru's strike.

Since Kazuki was keeping Yahaba busy, the balls were now traveling in more predictable directions, making them easier to dodge.

Yahaba wasn't very happy seeing Kazuki moving towards him so freely.

"Fucking filth!" Yahaba snarled, moving his hands in a strange way. "I'm going to make you regret that you laid your filthy hands on me!"

As Kazuki was moving in, he felt a very strong force pushing him in the guts. He widened his eyes as he lost his balance and was sent flying towards the wall. A crash like that would've snapped his neck or given him head trauma if he wasn't careful, so he tried his best to land on his feet to lessen the impact. It would fracture some of his bones, but it wouldn't leave him unable to fight.

However, the worst didn't come. As he crashed into the wall, he felt that something soft was on his back. When he opened his eyes, he couldn't believe what he saw.

Nezuko was standing behind him, with blood coming down her forehead and grazes on her pale face. Kazuki was genuinely taken aback, not because she protected him, but because she wasn't regenerating the damage. He then heard a bunch of steps coming towards him, which luckily were Tamayo and Yushiro.

"Are you both okay?" Tamayo asked, checking the two for any injury. "You don't seem to have taken any serious damage Kazuki, just grazes. Nezuko-san on the other hand…"

"She doesn't seem in pain to be honest, so her demonic endurance is still there," Kazuki stated, peeking outside to see Yahaba slowly coming towards them.

"Tamayo-san, you need to heal the demon girl fast if we don't want to get overwhelmed by this eye-guy…"

Tamayo took out a syringe which contained a strange yellow liquid. It was one of her demonic steroids which would augment the strength and healing factor of a demon.

Nezuko started to regenerate her forehead fast, her demonic blood already going dry by the effect of the serum.

Kazuki took notice that Yushiro was handing him something, it was a dirty green bag. The demon boy looked absolutely disgusted while holding it.

"Don't stand there to look at it! Take this foul thing away from me!" Yushiro shouted, irritated by Kazuki's dumbfounded expression. The white-haired boy didn't complain and took the bag with no hesitation. He took a quick peek to check its contents.

"Alright, this will do..." Kazuki muttered as his face lit up in realization. He then looked specifically at Nezuko and Yushiro. "You two. I have a plan."

Yushiro narrowed his eyes.

"...What kind of plan? Let me remind you that your plans are way too reckless!"

Tamayo nodded, giving them a worried look. "Yushiro is right Kazuki, your plans tend to cause... a lot of damage."

"Mmph?" Nezuko muffled, confused. She was interested in what plan the boy had.

"...This is a good one." Kazuki finally said, fixing his gaze onto Nezuko. "Demon girl, I hope you're good at hearing instructions, because I'm only saying this once."

Nezuko was sweating bullets at the determination in his voice.

* * *

"Hey, hey! Don't space out now, you could die~"

Tanjiro gritted his teeth in frustration, desperately wanting to know what happened to Nezuko after she threw herself to save Kazuki. But he couldn't go see them if he was endlessly dodging the temari balls Susamaru was throwing at him.

He had to finish this fast.

Before Tanjiro could move into the offensive, he felt a gentle tug on his haori. Sharply turning around, he saw Nezuko waving at him cheerfully. Seeing that she had no injuries, Tanjiro was relieved for a second but still didn't let his guard down. They were in the middle of combat right now, and at risk of getting hit by a limb-tearing temari ball.

"Nezuko, stand back. It's dangerous!" Tanjiro ordered, worried about Nezuko's safety. Seeing that she wasn't moving, he wanted to press further. Until he saw a small object that she was holding.

Tanjiro's eyes widened. That wasn't a harmless small object, that was a stick of dynamite! It was very commonly used for mining, and was a very potent explosive. It was something the miners around the villages used to get materials.

On the other hand, Nezuko shouldn't even know how to use it.

"N-Nezuko, who gave you that?" Tanjiro stuttered, careful around the destructive object. Nezuko pointed towards her eyes and made a gesture around it. Now, Tanjiro didn't know sign language, but it was very obvious that Nezuko was referring to someone with glasses. "Kazuki gave it to you? That's way too reckless!"

Tanjiro would have taken away the object from Nezuko, but he was stopped when he saw that Susamaru had already thrown six balls at them. He gasped and quickly jumped away from the impact area. Nezuko did the same, dodging every single projectile like it was child's play.

Nezuko allowed the veins from her forehead to show, a trait that demons had when they were beginning to engage in combat.

The balls returned back to Susamaru, who was grinning in anticipation at how fast the siblings moved.

"I feel it… I feeeeeeel it! The bond between you two is very strong, yes?" Susamaru cooed as she caught her balls back. "Let's play more!"

'Even without the help of that arrow demon, she's so resilient! I need to do something before she wears me down completely…' Tanjiro thought as sweat ran down from his forehead. But despite his nervousness, he didn't lose focus; he was a Demon Slayer after all.

One move, everything had to end this with one move. He just needed to see the opening thread before striking his foe.

He couldn't ignore the temari balls either, so he had to attack them if he didn't want to get turned into paste before he dealt some significant damage. He needed a technique that would have him in constant movement so he could get close to deal the final blow.

A move that had him on constant movement…

Tanjiro's face lit up. He had it! Susamaru seemed to notice this, which let her already present grin grow bigger.

"It seems that you have your hopes up…" Susamaru mused, clenching her balls tighter as her entire body started to fidget. "Good… let me crush those hopes as you get killed by one of the Twelve Demon Moons!"

That was an important detail, but Tanjiro wasn't going to ask as he saw imminent death coming towards him. He performed various roles, dodging every single one of the six balls that were thrown at him, and dodging yet again as the balls came back in the opposite direction.

Difference from the previous throws? The balls were no longer moving in unnatural directions. There was a pattern, back and forth. Even if it was still hard to dodge, it was not an impossible task, which was a huge advantage for Tanjiro. It was all thanks to Kazuki keeping the arrow demon in check.

However, Tanjiro wouldn't get anywhere if he couldn't get to a safe distance to perform his technique.

Just as he was about to change his plans, Nezuko took charge as she dashed to the seemingly unaware Susamaru.

Until the demon started to twist her body in an unnatural way, her torso making a full 360-degree turn towards Nezuko.

Tanjiro's eyes widened in horror as he feared what was coming next.

"Surprise~"

Susamaru grabbed her temari balls and slammed them full force into Nezuko's face. The hit was so hard that it caused a shockwave that reached even to Tanjiro. Nezuko lost her balance and fell over. The temari demon didn't stop there and used one of her six hands to pin her to the ground.

Tanjiro couldn't bear to watch this anymore. He took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"_NEZUKO!_"

He felt as if his whole body moved on his own, dodging every single one of the balls that were thrown at him. He was closely getting in range for him to use his technique.

It was now or never.

"Breath of Water, Tenth Form: _Constant Flux!_"

This technique was a gamble, it would cause him to never stop attacking until he finally took down his target. If he took too much time, he would die.

He dashed forward, his eyes locked onto Susamaru, whose grin faltered and then faded. She was serious now.

Susamaru fixed her attention towards Tanjiro, having all of her six balls ready in her hands. She threw four of them, each of them in different directions at different speeds, while still being lethal if it ever hit someone.

One, two, three, four- all dodged as Tanjiro continued his unstoppable assault. He could already sense the opening thread. Four of her balls were already sliced, so he didn't waste time as he jumped towards the demon's open neck.

Susamaru however, didn't seem to be scared in the slightest. In fact, she was grinning, with that sick grin she always wore on her face.

Tanjiro had made a fatal mistake. Susamaru was still holding two balls on her hands, and he was already midair. He could use the Ninth Form to dodge, but that would cause him to lose this rare opportunity to strike the demon down.

"Big mistake~!" Susamaru cackled as she threw one of her two remaining balls.

Tanjiro persisted; he could try to slice the ball, but as soon as he did that, he was pretty sure the demon was going to finish him off with her remaining ball.

He wasn't going to let that happen though. He would use his body as cover and slice Susamaru's head off, he had to do it even if it meant that he would lose an arm in the process. Constant Flux was still active, and his blood was rushing fast, so he had to push his body to the very limits.

He could pull this off.

He slashed the temari ball and charged towards Susamaru. The demon didn't think twice and hurled her remaining ball at Tanjiro.

However, instead of going for the neck, Tanjiro thrust his sword and nailed it to the ground, gaining enough force to gain altitude to jump over Susamaru.

He completely fooled her.

Susamaru visibly panicked, her eyes widening when she saw Tanjiro jumping over her. "No, no, you don't have me cornered!" she shouted through gritted teeth, quickly raising her hands to Tanjiro. "I have YOU cornered!"

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, her arm detached from her body and shot itself in the air in an attempt to catch Tanjiro off guard.

He quickly shifted to his left and dodged the projectile, but he lost his balance in the end and landed on his butt, a couple of feet away from Susamaru. The demon grinned victoriously, quickly approaching Tanjiro as she had six balls again in all of her hands, ready to finish off her prey.

"That was fun! Very fun yes! I will keep your head as a trophy for such a good—" Susamaru was cut off when a hand grabbed her mouth from behind her.

Nezuko got up, with half of her head slowly regenerating. She used her other hand to place the stick of dynamite she'd had earlier inside Susamaru's mouth.

Tanjiro knew immediately what he had to do as he quickly dashed forward and hit his blade hard enough in the floor to create a spark. The sparks flew over to the fuse, lighting it up.

Susamaru's eyes widened in fear as she desperately tried to get rid of the dynamite, but Nezuko didn't let her as she shoved the stick all the way down her throat.

Tanjiro ran quickly towards Nezuko and pulled her away from the imminent explosion.

A big radius of dust covered the area causing Tanjiro to cover his eyes. Once the smoke cleared, he could finally stare at the result of the explosion, only to look away in disgust as he saw the disfigured Susamaru, with only her lower torso remaining intact. The same could not be said for her upper half that was badly mutilated. Half of her head remained attached to her body, while the other was completely torn apart into pieces.

Tanjiro couldn't let her regenerate the damage, so he set Nezuko down and took a deep breath.

"Breath of Water, First Form: Water Surface Slash!"

He dashed towards her, screaming with all of his might. He saw the opening thread as clear as day.

It connected. His sword cleanly passed through Susamaru's neck, effectively decapitating her. Her body fell limp to the ground as it started to disintegrate in little bits.

Tanjiro let out a sigh of relief, sheathing his blade. He turned around to double-check if he actually killed the demon, only for him to look with pity at Susamaru who—despite being faced with imminent death—still clung to her temari balls like a child.

"My… mari… thank you… for not leaving me behind…"

She expired after saying that, her last bits disintegrating into the wind. Tanjiro could only pray for the safety of her soul and that in her next life she would get to live better and greater without the need to kill people. It was a sad existence for demons, from genuinely good people to flesh-eating monsters with no conscious thoughts for human life.

And it was all thanks to Muzan Kibutsuji. Just the thought of that thing made his blood boil, but he calmed himself. The time to face him would eventually come.

He tensed as he remembered that he had more important things to worry about. Was that ball demon one of the Twelve Demon Moons? Is Kazuki alright in his fight with the Arrow Demon? Does he need a sample for this demon? What about Nezuko?

Nezuko...

"Nezuko!" Tanjiro remembered that Nezuko wasn't in the best condition when she pulled that stunt against Susamaru.

Tanjiro ran towards his sister, immediately leaning towards her to check her appearance. She was a mess: her head got completely smashed in as soon as she got too close to danger, her face was dented like metal and completely bloodied. Luckily, she was regenerating the damage she took, albeit slowly.

Tanjiro avoided contact to Nezuko's face as, judging by how she was wincing, it was probably very painful for her to regenerate, so he had to be extremely careful with her. He kindly carried and leaned her against a nearby wall.

Nezuko eased her posture as soon as Tanjiro touched her and went back to sleep.

Tanjiro wanted to hug her very tightly, tell her how much he was sorry for putting her through such an ordeal. He was her big brother, he was supposed to protect her, not the other way around! He sighed, leaving her in the same spot to let her rest and heal. He immediately went on guard as soon as he smelled two demons were still nearby.

Two demons and one human, to be precise.

One of those demons was Yushiro, and the human was definitely Kazuki. They must be still fighting the arrow demon.

Before Tanjiro could rush in to help them, he caught a peculiar, but pleasant smell near the arrow demon. It was the scent of… flowers?

"Aaaargh. I HATE YOU!"

That was the arrow demon!

He had to move fast. Tanjiro picked up Nezuko and rushed in towards the house, looking for someone.

The house was a complete mess, furniture rolled over, walls cracked, building unstable. It made Tanjiro sad seeing Tamayo's clinic getting wrecked.

"Tamayo-san!" he shouted, head swinging like a swivel.

No response.

Tanjiro clicked his tongue and kept looking around for someone, anyone, that could help.

"Tanjiro-san?"

To his luck, Tanjiro turned around and found someone standing across the hallway. Tamayo had opened the door to her basement just in time. Tamayo gasped as she took notice of the bloodied Nezuko in Tanjiro's arms. "Quick, give her to me!"

Tanjiro complied and quickly made his way towards Tamayo, who took the bloodied girl in her arms.

"I will treat her wounds down in the basement," Tamayo said while checking Nezuko's wounds. "I can't do that on this floor."

Tanjiro nodded. He was willing to give Tamayo all the time she needed if it meant Nezuko would be okay.

"There was a great amount of noise outside where Kazuki and Yushiro were fighting, but now is all silent..." Tamayo muttered worriedly. "Would you be so kind to check if they're okay while I tend to your sister?"

He didn't even hesitate to respond. "Of course!"

* * *

A couple of minutes ago...

Humans were a complete eyesore for Yahaba; their filthy and weak nature always got to his nerves. The only thing they were good for was being a fine delicacy to the superior demons.

But he had found something more irritating than a human. In front of him was a demon who bore no desire to eat this human and on top of that, he was actually helping him!

He was helping _food_ to _survive._

He didn't understand it. He couldn't understand it at all.

"I hate wearing this…"

"Quit whining, it's the only way that you can fight him."

The human boy snorted as he appeared to be caressing his forehead. The demon boy had placed one of his tags on his head and not so kindly forced a needle into his forehead, which seemed far from a pleasant sensation. Must have been the boy's Blood Demon Art.

Not like Yahaba cared, but what intrigued him the most was that it had improved the human's eyesight to the point where he didn't need to wear glasses.

Well, that was it for the analysis. The human didn't look that imposing, and the demon boy didn't have a very good Blood Demon Art at his disposal.

The outcome of this fight was already decided.

Yahaba grinned, preparing his arrows to go for the kill. He wasn't like Susamaru who prefers to play with her food; there is something called manners after all.

"Well Yushiro..." The human addressed the demon boy. "You know the plan."

The demon boy frowned deeply, slowly looking towards the human.

"I still think this is a really bad idea..."

The human rolled his eyes, not even acknowledging his partner's complaints.

Yahaba couldn't bear to watch this anymore. He moved his hands and quickly directed his arrows towards his opponents. He would quickly disarm the human and bring him towards him to personally slice his neck. A slow but painful death for sure.

Even if Yahaba didn't want to touch that filth, it was what the human deserved for trying to lay his hands on him a while ago.

That would be the outcome if his opponents were stupid enough to stand still.

"Split."

As soon as those words came out of the human's mouth, both boys dashed to different directions. Yahaba moved his arrows towards them, trying to get them to lose their balance by any means.

However, they were dodging the arrows as if they knew they were there, as if they had some sort of second eyesight on them. Yahaba knew his ability well, and he knew that the naked eye was not able to see his ability by any means.

He gritted his teeth, quickly putting the pieces together. It's all part of the demon boy's ability. It's the reason why the human wasn't using the glasses he had earlier.

The human began charging towards his front, sword already unsheathed while already looking for his neck. He could see the demon boy coming from behind, probably willing to pin him down.

They were trying to surround him from both sides.

Yahaba snorted. It was a foolproof strategy, that's for sure. But if they thought they could grab his neck that easily…

They were sadly mistaken.

"Foolish," was all Yahaba said before waving his hands erratically. His arrows started to twist into a spiral pattern, quickly moving towards the demon boy.

The demon boy lost his balance and passed just around Yahaba, completely missing him. He then crashed into the human so hard that it pushed them back a couple of meters away from him.

The strength of his koketsu arrows were strong enough to kill a normal should they hit any solid material, so Yahaba was fairly sure that the human was done for.

"Breath of Ice, Fourth Form: Ice Path - Surface!"

As the human was falling to the ground, he grabbed the demon boy's kimono and performed a backflip. He then landed on his feet, sliding across the smoothest floor possible.

Interesting ability, but ultimately useless, as it only served to delay the inevitable.

The human growled in frustration, glowering at the demon boy angrily.

"Yushiro, focus! Didn't you see his arrows? We would have him already if it wasn't for you!"

That tone of voice didn't seem to soothe the demon boy in the slightest.

"I'm trying to headlock him, dumbass!" he argued back, eyeing him at the same level. "Did you forget that you are the only means to kill this guy?! You should shut your mouth and pay attention to his movements!"

The human's expression darkened. It appeared that the demon boy pushed him over the edge. So, he's one of those people…

"If you won't listen to what I say…"

One second, the human was just staring blankly at the demon boy, making no sudden movements. Then, out of nowhere, the human swung his blade, cleanly cutting off the demon boy's head.

That was a clean kill. The demon boy's body fell limp to the ground, with his head slowly rolling towards Yahaba. The face of the demon boy was completely horrified, like he did not expect this turn of events, but mostly, his expression was that of betrayal.

"You are just a liability."

Yahaba's eyes widened. That was certainly a surprise, an unexpected but welcome surprise.

"You just killed your ally…" Yahaba muttered in disbelief before breaking out into laughter. "Bahahaha! Humans, are as dumb as rocks. You just attacked your only means to win—as if you had any in the first place. I'll have to agree with you on one thing though, your ally was certainly an idiot if he thought he could surprise me like that."

The human boy glowered at him, making Yahaba flinch instantly. His cold blue eyes, his scowl, the entire look on his face may have seemed plain at first and something that Yahaba had seen in countless slayers he has killed. It would only make them look like idiots.

But this human? The intensity of his emotions could be felt from miles away.

It was cold, _chilling_ anger.

All of sudden the human kicked the demon boy's corpse towards him. Yahaba immediately used his koketsu arrows to push away the body, but as soon as he did that, he knew he screwed up.

The human boy immediately took charge and got dangerously close to him. Yahaba instinctively used his arrows to pull the human away from him.

Yahaba grinned as soon as his arrows enveloped the boy's torso. The win was his, he would twist his arrows to break the boy's spine to make him bleed out. A painful death deserving of someone as dirty as this guy.

"Now!"

As the boy shouted, Yahaba froze.

Not because of the intensity of the human's voice, but because he literally couldn't move. His hands felt like they were strongly gripped by something very strong.

Or rather someone…

This grip was far too strong to belong to a human, and since Yahaba was only fighting one person, it didn't take too much time to figure out who it was. He twisted his hands all the way to the back, courtesy of his demonic attributes and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

The treacherous demon boy was standing with his ever-present frown on his face. Yahaba gritted his teeth, closing both of his eyes and redirecting the arrows.

"Damn you, get away from me you- Aiiieeee!"

He shrieked as he felt the force of a train starting to crush his pupils. He couldn't see it, but he could feel his hands starting to bleed. He felt the burning pain across his whole body.

He had to move now; if he stayed still screaming any longer, then that human boy would surely slice his head off.

"I'll kill you both!" Yahaba roared as he opened the eyes of his face. He could see that the human was only inches in front of him. He would not let such filth kill him that easily!

Yahaba activated his ability and sent arrows in every direction towards the human boy, intending to turn him into paste. He could feel the pain getting stronger as the demon boy started to crush even harder, but Yahaba didn't care.

He would kill this human; he was flowing with determination.

The human panicked, his serious facade fading as he saw the number of arrows coming towards him. It was a total of 20 arrows, it had the strength of 10 demons at once.

"Yushiro, get away from him!"

Yahaba grinned, already tasting victory. It mattered not if the demon boy used himself as a meat shield, he placed all his power into this attack with a force so strong that it was capable of dismembering every part of the human body.

"Dammit!" the demon boy cursed as he jumped away to help the human. The arrows were already on the human's entire body.

It's over.

Before the human got pulled by his arrows, he threw something small towards him. It was a very fast throw, but Yahaba's eyes could easily catch it. It was a worn-out leather pouch.

How filthy.

With a grunt, he sliced the pouch away from him, accidentally ripping it apart.

Yahaba gawked, stunned at the sight as he watched the contents spread out in the environment. It was some sort of sparkly white dust, with some pink colors that made a good contrast with them. It also had a pleasant smell; it almost drove him to the point of dozing…

He shook his head, what the hell was he thinking?! He almost lost focus on the battle again!

He pressed his attack further; the human boy was struggling to even swing his blade at this. However, the demon boy still insisted on getting in his way, placing himself behind the human in order to shield him from his attack.

"Don't you understand?" Yahaba asked through gritted teeth. "What you're doing is pointless, you'll get torn into pieces too!"

He got no response. No matter, they would die soon. Dawn was coming and the demon boy would take time to regenerate.

'They're very close to the wall now, they're as good as dead.' Yahaba thought as he let a feral grin show across his lips.

"Breath of Ice, Second Form: Brutal Hailstorm!"

The human boy made a single stab towards the wall, completely shattering it in the process. That seemed to slow down their pace, but not enough as Yahaba kept propelling them in all directions.

However, their movement came to a halt as the demon boy managed to dig his entire hand into the ground. Thanks to the human's earlier attack, they were brought to ground level.

Yahaba snarled. They were annoying and persistent pests. He would not rest until every single one of them was dead.

After all, he cannot go back to Muzan empty handed.

Luckily, he saw that the human was panting in exhaustion as he was struggling to get up. Good, all he had to do now was make him use those techniques of his until he got completely worn out.

But he couldn't help getting this weird feeling. It felt like it was getting hotter every second.

He froze as he noticed something: his koketsu arrows were starting to lose density and some of them were even fading from sight.

His eyes widened. Why was he getting weaker? Demons were unable to feel fatigue, and thus, were always able to stay at full power. It's what made them significantly better than humans.

Aren't they?

'Why, why is it harder to move?' Yahaba thought as his whole body started to tremble, feeling something that he didn't think he would feel in all of his demonic life—fatigue. His vision started to get blurry as he got a terrible headache. He placed his hands over his heads to try and see the problem, only to meet with a horrifying sight.

His hands were not regenerating, their eyes were still crushed by that demon. That was out of the ordinary: his regeneration was strong enough to the point that it only took a matter of seconds to get fully healed!

'Am I turning… _human?!_'

Then, he felt a sting. A strong, painful sting.

His skin was starting to turn purple, every single part of his body feeling like hell was burning him completely. He then felt like he had a noose tied around his neck, choking him brutally as foam started to come out of his mouth.

"What… is happening… to me!" he tried to yell as he struggled to keep himself on his feet.

The human and the demon boy seemed to notice as the former started to breathe heavily, preparing himself for an attack.

Yahaba panicked as he desperately tried to move, but the pain was so strong that it kept him snared in his place. He was left there, defenseless, dreading what was coming next.

"Breath of Ice, Third Form: _Sheer Cold!_"

He felt it. He felt the pain every single time the human drove his sword into him. It burned. A lot. It felt like diving into cold water, getting stabbed by a thousand needles and unable to get out.

Yahaba collapsed, losing all the feeling of his feet and hands. His body fell limp to the floor, unable to make a single movement.

"You have lost," the human said without a hint of pity.

Yahaba gritted his teeth, unable to comprehend the situation. He had the upper hand just a few minutes ago!

"What… did you do to me…!" he snarled weakly; it was too painful to even talk now.

The human stared blankly with those cold eyes of his, and he couldn't tell what he was thinking. Those eyes were empty, like they had seen all the horrors in this world.

"The pouch you destroyed earlier… contained a powder made from wisteria flowers—courtesy of the escapee you're trying to kill."

Yahaba caught his breath as he processed the information. He didn't like this one bit. That damned plant was said to give demons a slow and painful death.

And he got careless and inhaled a whole ration of it.

"That face of yours seems to have realized what is about to happen to you." He leaned forward, glaring at Yahaba dead in the eye. "I can make it painless for you, if you provide me with the information I need."

Yahaba screamed, the pain of the poison starting to become unbearable. His bones were starting to melt, penetrating his organs and muscles. He could feel the bones of his face cracking little by little.

"Please stop this. Please… stop this! PLEASE KILL ME NOW!"

The human inhaled sharply, placing the blade right beside Yahaba's throat.

He smiled. Finally, the sweet release of death is the only thing that can stop this pain.

"...How many people have you killed as a demon? How many families have you destroyed because of the useless killings?"

He pressed the blade forward, the steel of the blade drawing blood from his neck. "How many innocents have begged you to kill them as you're doing it now...?"

Yahaba coughed blood as he scowled. This was getting ridiculous. "What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Answer. My. Question."

"What question?! What goddamn question—agh!" Yahaba was so fed up with this human bullshit that he forgot about the poison. His eyes turned blood red, crying tears of blood in the process.

The human didn't waste any time. "Why is Muzan looking for Kamado, the boy with the Hanafuda earrings?"

"Why should I know?!" Yahaba spat, sending a glare towards the human. "It's not my place to question his orders. I only serve."

The gaze of the human seemed to harden before shaking his head in disappointment. "I see, then you're truly hopeless. Serving someone who ruins other lives for pleasure… just because he turned you into a monster."

Yahaba wanted to lash out at this filth. He was being looked down by a human! This type of humiliation could not stand!

"Y… You! How dare you- a mere human, talk about our Lord like that! I'll kill you, every single one of you. I will hunt you down!"

"The talk is over."

Yahaba felt the cold steel passing through his neck, the pain of the poison finally fading. His rage, however, was still ever-present.

The human said nothing else, he just sheathed his blade and turned around, leaving him to die.

This act was so humiliating, it was like being treated like a goddamn peasant. Using his last breath before disintegrating into nothingness, Yahaba screamed. "Aaaargh. I HATE YOU!"

In their last moments, people show who they really are. Yahaba was loyal from the beginning to the end. He lived a life of loyalty for his lord and died serving him well.

* * *

"It is done," Kazuki said, staggering as he walked towards Yushiro. "Thank you for trusting me back then. You detached your head just in time."

"It was that or you would have killed me by accident!" he snapped as he looked ready to punch Kazuki in the face. "This is exactly what Tamayo-sama and I meant when we said your plans are way too reckless!"

"Calm down… it all worked out in the end didn't it?"

Yushiro sighed and then looked up and sent a serious glare towards him. "Kazuki, you're smart and creative, I'll give you that, that's why I accepted this crazy plan of yours in the first place, but you have to bear in mind the consequences of your actions. What if I had been a second late to detach my head? What then?!"

Kazuki narrowed his eyes, offended by Yushiro's comment. "You know damn well that I won't do that to—"

"I know you don't have that intention, but the chance was still there, and you took it!" Yushiro yelled at the top of his lungs, making Kazuki shut up immediately. He didn't realise how upset he really was. "If you only think about yourself, you will end up hurting others. If you and I died, do you know how hurt Tamayo-sama would be?"

Kazuki inhaled sharply before exhaling, letting the thoughts of his mind roam freely. He didn't know he'd screwed up that badly.

"I-It was the only thing I could come up at that moment," Kazuki stuttered, but that did little to help the situation as Yushiro's pupils narrowed like a serpent.

"Really? You still have an excuse?"

That firm tone of voice made him shut up. He was right, he shouldn't have an excuse for doing what he did.

"Sorry…" Kazuki muttered, looking away in shame. "I-I will try to be more careful next time."

That seemed to calm down Yushiro as he eased his posture.

"Just… be more self-aware next time. Got it?" he asked, a bit more softly this time. Kazuki made an awkward nod, which was enough to satisfy him. "Good, now, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." he mumbled, softly. He then looked over to Yahaba's disintegrated body before looking back at Yushiro. "We need to go help Kamado, I'm pretty sure he's still fighting with-"

"Kazuki, Yushiro!"

They both turned their attention to the source of the voice. Kamado Tanjiro approached them, blade ready in both hands.

"Where is it? Where is the arrow demon?!"

"Disintegrating." Yushiro pointed towards Yahaba's body on the floor. Tanjiro eased his posture, storing the blade back to its sheath.

"So… it's over?" Tanjiro asked, causing Kazuki to nod.

"Yes, it appears it is," Kazuki said, feeling less tense than before. He then turned to Yushiro, who seemed to notice his stare.

"What!"

"Do you… have that dagger thing that you use to draw blood?"

Yushiro raised an eyebrow, confused where this was going. "I do, but why do you want to…" he trailed off as he began to look back and forth between Kazuki and Tanjiro.

His face lit up, finally realizing what Kazuki meant. "Oh, I get it now. Now you want to help us, you stubborn prick?!"

Kazuki rolled his eyes. "I'm more of returning the favor rather than helping him. So, if you would please just give me the-"

"Alright, alright!" Yushiro yelled before digging his hands into his kimono. He then pulled out a small dagger which had a white line engraved on the blade, it also had a handle made of glass. He then gave it to Kazuki, which he gently took and made his way towards Yahaba's corpse.

Tanjiro was completely confused about the current situation. He blinked two times before finally looking at Yushiro.

"Yushiro-san, what is that dagger?"

Yushiro opened his mouth, then closed it. Whatever he was about to say got cut short as he sprinted towards Kazuki, who fell limp onto the ground.

"Kazuki!" Tanjiro screamed, sprinting towards the fallen figure of Kazuki. When both boys arrived, he didn't hesitate to pick him up from the ground and give him support from his shoulder.

"Tch, that was very risky Kazuki," Yushiro scowled, checking his pulse in the process. "You know you can't use the Ice Breath so much. It's not suited for your body."

"Thank you for reminding me" Kazuki deadpanned, earning a scowl from Yushiro.

Tanjiro gawked, clearly surprised by this information. "You can't handle the use of your own breath?"

"The Ice Breath is meant to be used by someone who has very high resistance and flexibility… which I don't have," Kazuki explained as he panted lightly. He clearly needed to rest.

"B-But you defeated… him!" Tanjiro stuttered as he pointed towards the place where Yahaba's body was supposed to be, which was now disintegrated completely.

"While I can't handle my own breath, that doesn't mean that I'm useless because of it," he explained again. "With the right planning, I can save my moves for the right time at the right moment. I can use up to three of the Ice Breath techniques in a fight. Any more than that and well… you see what happens."

"But why use something as risky as the Ice Breath?" Tanjiro asked.

Kazuki frowned as he looked to the side for a moment before returning his gaze to Tanjiro.

"It's… complicated," he said finally, albeit awkwardly. "Long story short, it's the only breath style I know, and I have the most experience with it."

Tanjiro seemed to ponder the information he was given before asking, "You're going to be okay?"

Kazuki gave a slow nod. "For the moment, yeah."

Tanjiro let out a small smile. "That's good to know."

Before they made their way inside the house—or what was left of it—Kazuki remembered something important that he forgot to ask. "Yushiro, I need to talk with Kamado for a moment," Kazuki said, prompting Yushiro to raise an eyebrow. "You should make your way inside; the sun is coming out soon."

"Okay?" he said, quickly making his way inside of the house. He turned around to glance at both boys. "Don't take long, I hate when people make Tamayo-sama wait."

Once the demon made his way inside, Kazuki sighed. "Well, I guess that's that then…"

"What did you want to talk about?" Tanjiro asked, sweat running across his face as he couldn't mask his impatience, which Kazuki noticed.

"What's the rush?"

"Nothing, I'm just worried about Nezuko…" Tanjiro said, looking at Kazuki with a frown. "You know, after you gave her a stick of _dynamite!_"

Kazuki knew where this was going. His eyes widened, clearly surprised by Nezuko's actions. "She understood everything I said?"

"I guess? Even if Nezuko has become a demon, that doesn't mean she's incapable of thought," Tanjiro explained in clear displeasure. "That's beside the point, why did you give her a stick of dynamite?!"

"I didn't think she would actually go ahead and do it..." Kazuki said as he nervously scratched his cheek. "Well, I gave her the dynamite as a last resort so you could go ahead and finish the demon off. You did that, right?"

Tanjiro nodded. "Yeah, I did it but it was still way too risky."

Kazuki sighed, understanding his displeasure. If he said this to him a few minutes ago, then he would have shrugged it off as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. However, his plan with Nezuko was less risky than the one he did with Yushiro.

"You know, only you and I should be concerned with our lives. Demons can only be killed via sunlight or decapitation by a nichirin blade."

"I know that! But still what if-"

"If she got caught in the blast?" Kazuki finished for him, making Tanjiro shut up. "She would regenerate. She's a demon, we're not. She can heal, we cannot. It's as simple as that."

Tanjiro frowned, clearly not accepting Kazuki's explanation.

Kazuki looked to the side, quite ashamed by how harsh he was. "Sorry I'm…"

"Tired," Tanjiro said, his gaze softening. "Don't worry, I can tell… It's just that as her elder brother, I must ensure that she's safe no matter what."

Kazuki blinked a couple of times. "Sounds to me that you're being unnecessarily overprotective."

Tanjiro's mouth gaped. "Eh?"

"Kamado, you should let your sister take care of herself for a while," Kazuki explained, careful as to not make him mad. "Otherwise, she would have a hard time fighting tougher opponents because of her lack of experience."

Tanjiro's expression turned grim. "I know that but… she's the only family I have left."

Kazuki's blank stare didn't leave Tanjiro, but deep inside he knew why he was being overprotective. He didn't know the details of what happened to him, but he knew how it felt. To lose a family, and to protect the few that you have left.

It was the same with him regarding Tamayo and Yushiro—they were two of the few people he considered as family, because he had no real family.

"All the more reason you should let her protect herself," Kazuki finally said. "Who knows, she might surprise you."

Tanjiro closed his eyes as he seemed to think over what he said. He seemed to be reminiscing unpleasant memories as Kazuki saw him frowning lightly. Then, after a brief silence, Tanjiro let out a satisfied grin. "Thank you… I will think about it."

"Sounds good to me," Kazuki said, nodding in satisfaction. "Now, can we go inside? We've been here for who knows how long that dawn is already out."

Tanjiro perked up as he turned to look at the direction where the moon was supposed to be, only for him to cover his eyes to avoid being blinded by the rays of the sun. It appears that they were talking for quite a while.

"Yeah, we should go now," Tanjiro said as he started to walk inside the house, supporting Kazuki on his shoulder.

While they were walking, Tanjiro spoke. "That reminds me, Tamayo-san told me your first name, but not your last name," he said. "Is there a reason for that?"

Kazuki just sent him the most deadpan stare he could muster. "Are we _really_ having this conversation now?"

Tanjiro chuckled nervously. "I'm just curious, that's all."

Kazuki would have rubbed his temples if he could actually move. He sighed. "One reason, which I will not explain, so I guess I'll just tell you my last name... Miyamoto," Kazuki said, causing Tanjiro to beam. "My full name is Miyamoto Kazuki, but please only call me Kazuki."

Tanjiro hummed before nodding. "I'll do that, but can you please call me Tanjiro?"

Kazuki didn't take that too kindly. "Why? I just met you like… five hours ago."

"Well, you are basically forcing me to call you by your given name…" Tanjiro laughed nervously while scratching the back of his head. "It would be nice if you would call me by name too!"

Not having the energy to keep arguing, Kazuki sighed. "Fair enough… Tanjiro."

(X)

"I need to see your tongue, say ahh."

"Ahh…"

Kazuki opened his mouth as Tamayo drove a tongue depressor into his mouth. It had an odd taste, which made him a little uncomfortable.

Tamayo's clinic was a mess. All of her rooms were completely wrecked because of the crossfire which meant all of her medicine and medical appliances were buried in rubble or broken. Luckily Tanjiro—who was the first to offer his help—got various things from the wreckage. That being some alcohol, a stethoscope, and many other tools. He also got Kazuki's glasses out there.

While it wasn't everything Tamayo could wish for, it was still something she could work with.

And thus, Kazuki sat on the floor, with Tamayo giving him a normal checkup while Tanjiro, Yushiro and Nezuko—now fully healed—looked from behind.

"It appears you have a sore throat... " Tamayo said, taking out the stick from Kazuki's mouth. "What did you feel when you fell?"

"Well, the first thing was feeling a little lightheaded, I thought it was nothing. Then suddenly my muscles felt like rubber and I lost my strength and balance."

Tamayo was humming, deeply in thought. "So, it's the same feeling you have after using your breath?"

"Yeah, the same as usual."

She nodded and then took out a small leather cuff and wrapped it around Kazuki's arm, connected to a tube to a manometer. It was a blood pressure meter. She then wore her stethoscope and placed it in the center of Kazuki's chest.

"Alright, take a deep breath," Tamayo said softly as she started to pump the air into the device.

Kazuki did what he was told, closing his eyes and breathing slowly. It hurt a bit, but nothing he couldn't handle.

After a brief session of inhaling and exhaling, Tamayo finally turned off the device and detached it from Kazuki. She had a neutral expression through all this, so it had to be nothing major.

"You have low blood pressure," Tamayo said while putting away her appliances.

Tanjiro gasped. "W-Wait, that's nothing too serious, right?" he stuttered, sweating profusely.

Tamayo shook her head. "It's serious if it's not treated, but right now there is nothing to worry about," she said while pulling out two pills from her bag. She then handed Kazuki a cup of water. "Drink this and you'll be okay," she said gently. Kazuki took the pills and the water and swallowed them.

The pills won't work in an instant, it's not magic. Kazuki stood up weakly and leaned himself into a wall for support, waiting for the pills to work. After all the tension was gone, he sighed and pulled out something from his yukata. It was the dagger that Yushiro gave him earlier, except instead of the blade having a white engraving, it was now crimson red, the handle having the same color.

"Tamayo-san, I have something for you," Kazuki said, giving the blade to Tamayo, who gently took it. Her eyes widened in realization as she understood perfectly well what that meant. Tanjiro looked curious about this and approached them.

"Mmph?" Nezuko grew curious as she tried to hold the blade, only for Tanjiro to hold her hand and shake his head.

"No Nezuko, that's dangerous. It could hurt your finger you know?"

Nezuko was confused as she pointed at her finger.

Tanjiro nodded. "Yes, exactly like that!"

"Kazuki, this is…!" Tamayo trailed off as she sent a look to Nezuko, then back to him. "Did you overhear our conversation?"

Kazuki nodded. "Most of it. You're going to need a ton of demon blood to cure that girl right? Here, take this," he said, giving the dagger to Tamayo. He could see that her eyes were welling up, not in sadness, but in happiness. She didn't cry, but she gave him a sweet motherly smile.

Kazuki just looked away, blushing in embarrassment. "S-Stop giving me that look, I'm just repaying the favor."

Tamayo inspected the blade before looking at Tanjiro with a satisfied smile on her face. "Tanjiro-san, with this sample of demon blood that Kazuki provided me, it has helped me on my research to turn your sister back to human."

"About time he helped," Yushiro grumbled under his breath. "But why does he deserve to get Tamayo-sama's angelic look…"

Tanjiro looked genuinely taken aback. He was clearly not expecting Kazuki's help in any way, and he understood why; he had been too dismissive up to this point.

At least he could have some peace of mind with this act.

"Wow, I didn't… Thank you Kazuki!" Tanjiro smiled, bowing all the way to the floor, so far that it made a crack.

Talk about an overreaction.

Seeing how happy Tanjiro was, Nezuko joined him by raising her arms up and moaning in happiness.

"I'm just repaying the favor for you Tanjiro, nothing else," Kazuki said, maintaining his calmness. "And once again, don't bow."

"What favor?" Tanjiro asked, puzzled. "I don't remember that you owe me anything."

Kazuki opened his mouth and then closed it. He didn't know? Or he didn't care? "Back then, you sent your sister to protect me, right?" Kazuki asked, causing the slayer to look at him.

Tanjiro's face lit up in realization. "Oh, that? I didn't tell her anything, she did it on her own," he explained, giving him a warm smile. "She's been hypnotized—because you're a human, she will protect you because it is her mission."

Kazuki blinked. Hypnosis? He didn't know that ancient technique was still used these days, or that it worked on _demons_ on all species.

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. If hypnosis could change a demon's behavior that fast, then Tamayo would have used the technique on every demon turned by Muzan to break out of his control. It wasn't that simple. That girl must have been thinking she's hypnotized to not attack humans.

Kazuki growled, wanting to hit himself on the head as he realized the stupidity of his thoughts because _that's basically how hypnosis works._

He would have to research that later in the library. Right now, he would just roll with it.

"I see… her name is Nezuko right?" he asked, looking at the girl in question.

Tanjiro nodded awkwardly. "Yeah… you forgot about her name already?"

"Yeah, I don't remember well the names of demons other than the ones I trust—which can only be counted with one hand," Kazuki explained, causing Tanjiro to frown. "The only ones I trust are Tamayo-san, Yushiro… and Nezuko has been added to that list."

That was enough to ease Tanjiro's distress as his frown slowly dissipated, eventually giving him a warm smile.

It was weird, Kazuki was never someone that wanted to do anything with the slayers, much less with demons, and here he was, befriending two siblings who were those same things he hated.

The irony of all.

Nezuko beamed and skipped towards him. Kazuki found it slightly amusing that a 14-year-old girl was acting like a mere toddler, but he had to admit that she was slightly adorable. She extended her hand over Kazuki's head, making the latter's eyes widen.

Oh no, she could do anything to him except _that!_

Kazuki pushed her hand away. "No patting."

She tried again, only to get pushed away, _again._

"No."

She persisted yet again as she fumed.

Kazuki was getting extremely irritated at this point, that if no one stopped her, he would have to yell at her. Last thing he wanted to do.

"That's alright Nezuko, he clearly doesn't want headpats," Tanjiro said, gently pulling his sister away from him. Nezuko pouted in frustration, clearly not appreciating getting interrupted.

Kazuki sighed, internally thanking Tanjiro for knowing the first thing about personal space.

He couldn't help but wonder, why did he change his mind to help these siblings? He had always hated how seemingly 'unbreakable' sibling bonds were, as if that was true.

But he couldn't help to feel that he did the right thing, like a part of his heart still… _desired_ these bonds.

It was an odd feeling that always left a bittersweet taste in his mouth.

"Hey, Kazuki."

Kazuki broke out of his trance as he heard the voice of Tanjiro addressing him.

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah…" Kazuki replied dismissively. "I was just thinking about something, what is it?"

Tanjiro seemed unsure at first, as he nervously scratched his cheek. "You know… the slayers could use someone as strong as you. You're very strong and can be such a huge help in their fight against the demons!" he said, causing everyone's eyes to be fixed on him.

Yushiro sent a glare towards Tanjiro as if he had just stepped into very thin ice.

Tamayo just looked between both boys, unsure where this was going. She knew how hard the subject of being a slayer was, something that made Kazuki sick, but she still had a small glint of hope in her eyes.

Kazuki was stunned, his eyes portraying a mixture of sadness and pain. He just didn't want to go to the corps, not because he was a coward—he could take as many demons as he wanted. It's because he didn't want to see… _him_. Just the thought of that person made his heart sink. It was because of _him_ that he hated sibling bonds in the first place.

But… a part of him wanted to go. He wasn't sure why, but the feeling was there.

"Sorry, Tanjiro…" Kazuki mumbled loud enough to be heard. He clenched his chest tightly, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"But… I just can't!"

Tanjiro seemed to want to talk more, but Kazuki didn't give him the chance as he walked away, not even looking him in the eye.

"Hey Kazuki, what's the problem!?" he could hear him plead. Kazuki stopped by the door, not even turning around.

"Sorry, Tanjiro, Nezuko," he muttered sadly. "Take care, and good luck on your mission… you will definitely need it."

* * *

_Small Taishō rumor: Did you know that Kazuki didn't let Nezuko headpat him because he actually loves being petted? He's just too proud of himself to let anyone do that to him._

_Ha, teenagers._

_AN: Sorry for the updates being slow, but I need time to polish this story before updating… otherwise, it will remain as a mess like my other failed projects. I hope this is a good start in the story! _

_A heads up to everyone. A certain orange-haired pillar will make an appearance in the next chapter…_

_See you next time!_

_Beta readers: 666-HyuugaNeji-999, Mad-Reader. (Thank you so much!)_


	3. Tough Choices

The next day wasn't easy for Kazuki.

Ever since the battle with the demons, Tamayo, Yushiro and Kazuki were forced to relocate into another place. They didn't want to risk getting ambushed by another demon.

However, that was the least of the young boy's worries, as he was currently feeling frustrated about something. He didn't know what it was, but whenever he remembered the strong bond between the Kamado siblings, he couldn't help but feel disgusted... betrayed.

In the deepest parts of his heart, though, he was desperate to have something similar. Something that was lost a long time ago. He wanted to regain it.

As Kazuki finished dismantling his food cart, he slowly made his way back to Tamayo's destroyed clinic, feeling the cold wind of the night. He walked, eyes glued to the ground. The night was still young as the moonlight shone from above.

"Kazuki?"

His eyes widened, feeling an all too familiar demonic presence on his back. He quickly turned around, sword ready on his hip, only to ease his posture when he saw the lone figure of Tamayo, carrying a basket—which looked a little too big for a woman of her size—full of new medical appliances.

"Tamayo-san?!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." Tamayo said, lightly bowing her head.

"Ah... it's fine," Kazuki said, quickly recovering from the sudden encounter. "What are you doing here? You should return to the clinic, where it's safe."

Tamayo chuckled, appreciating his concern. "It's okay, Yushiro already placed a few of his tags all over the district. He will warn me if there is any sort of trouble. And also, it would be better for me to keep moving, right? After all, Muzan already knows where I've been hiding."

"And Yushiro?" he replied with a frown.

"Finding a new place for us to settle down. Probably near Akihabara."

Kazuki remembered that most of Tamayo's medical tools got destroyed alongside her clinic—courtesy of the demons sent by Muzan—so she would definitely be in need of new tools. He hummed, before nodding slowly, understanding her reasoning. "I see..."

Tamayo tilted her head and frowned, noticing that something was off about the boy. Kazuki didn't know it, but he seemed way more distressed ever since the Kamado siblings left the state.

"Is something on your mind? You usually don't tremble this much."

Kazuki's eyes widened, surprised by the woman's keen observation. He found himself at a loss for words, unable to respond to her question, which did little to ease her worries.

"We can talk about it once we return to the clinic," she said in a tone that left room for no arguments.

Kazuki found his words dying inside his throat and just nodded. There was too much going on inside of his mind that he found trouble getting the right words out of his mouth.

However, even with all the turmoil on his mind, there were still things that didn't escape from his sight.

"Tamayo-san, let me carry that basket for you."

Tamayo raised an eyebrow and looked at him with slight amusement. "I'm fine Kazuki, really, I can carry all of this by myself."

Kazuki blushed in embarrassment. "I know that! The thing is..." He leaned to the woman's ear and whispered. "Everyone is glaring at me like I'm a damn pig..."

Tamayo tilted her head, not understanding his distress. She started to look at her surroundings and saw that the local citizens were glaring at Kazuki disapprovingly. She could perfectly carry this all by herself because of her demonic strength, but she understood that this didn't leave a good image on the boy. Of course, this was because on the outside, it looked like a frail woman was carrying a very big basket alongside a perfectly healthy young man who was doing nothing.

Yushiro would kill Kazuki if he saw that he was handing all the work to her.

She chuckled slightly, knowing that Kazuki's silly pride could get him worked up in the silliest situations. She set the basket down and stepped away from it. "Very well, you can help me with it."

Kazuki sighed in relief and knelt down, trying to lift it up himself. He felt his back ache a bit when he tried to pull up, feeling the weight of the basket fully on his hands.

'There's definitely more than just medical appliances here!' Kazuki growled internally as he struggled to lift the basket. 'Tamayo-san does tend to buy everything she sees...'

Tamayo started to get worried seeing him that he was struggling with getting that basket off the ground. "Y-You sure that you can carry that on your own?"

"This? Oh, of course, let me just-" Kazuki said before taking a deep breath and finally pulling that basket up to his chest. "Give it a quick lift...!"

He puffed some air out of his body as he tried to keep his balance, he felt sweat coming down his forehead and his face burning red from the pressure. The basket was very heavy, but it wasn't like it would kill him.

Tamayo panicked as she looked tempted to yank the basket away from him. "Are you sure you don't want me to carry it?!"

Kazuki nodded through gritted teeth. "Yeah look... can we move now?"

Tamayo reluctantly nodded, and they both went on their way back to the clinic. No one said anything to each other, which was... kind of awkward as Kazuki couldn't even bear to look her in the eye.

He knew he could trust everything to Tamayo, because she was the closest thing Kazuki had to a mother. However, he would wait until they arrived at the clinic.

"We're here."

Kazuki snapped back into reality, not knowing that he'd just phased through Yushiro's intangible wall. He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn't even feel the numbness on both of his arms. Tamayo made a few glances towards him but she didn't say anything. There wasn't any need to.

They made their way to the basement, where a bunch of bags with various medicines can be seen, alongside types of clothes. All they needed before leaving was a new safehouse, which Yushiro was taking care of.

"You can leave the basket alongside the bag," Tamayo said, taking a seat on the floor. She patted the spot beside her. "You can take a seat once you're done."

Kazuki nodded, albeit reluctantly. He knew he had to talk to Tamayo, but where he could possibly start? How could he explain his problem? Would she understand?

He sighed in resignation. He'd just have to wait and see.

Kazuki went and placed the basket beside the bags, feeling an immediate sense of relief as he felt the weight on his hands reducing. He stretched his back, eyes looking at the ceiling. He was still reluctant to talk, but there was nothing he could do now.

He went to Tamayo and took a seat beside her.

"So, what's the problem?" she asked, her voice gentle and caring. "You can talk to me whenever you want, I won't be going anywhere."

Kazuki didn't say anything. He was still figuring out what to say, what he could say, what he needed to say to lift the weight from his chest. He didn't say anything for a couple of minutes, which felt like hours to him.

Finally, he took a deep breath and mustered his courage to talk to Tamayo. No secrets, he owed her that much.

"Do you remember what I told you about my brother?" Kazuki said, quickly getting his guardian's attention. "I… just don't understand. These family bonds, they hurt when I see them but at the same time, they make me feel... funny on the inside. Maybe I'm crazy... I don't know, to be honest."

He looked directly at her with pleading eyes. "Why can't I just…let it go?"

Every word that came out of Kazuki's mouth felt like a chore. He wanted answers, he needed answers.

Tamayo didn't say anything; she just looked to the side, seemingly thinking about something. She stood up, hand cupped under her chin. Each passing second, her face seemed to grow somber. That was... weird. Kazuki found her actions unusual to how she normally acted.

"Tamayo-san?" he asked, trying to get the attention of the woman.

The woman in question seemed to snap out of her daze as she turned back to look at him, a sad look on her face. It seemed that she was reminiscing some painful memories. She went back and sat next to Kazuki again, this time more composed.

"I'm uh-" She coughed, words stuck in her throat, then took a deep breath. "I'm going to tell you what happened to me four hundred years ago."

Kazuki blinked, unsure where she was going with this. He nodded, letting the woman get her point across.

She bit her lower lip, before she spoke again. "It all started 400 years ago, in the midst of the Sengoku Era..."

And as Tamayo told her story, her calm facade started to break and she started to shiver from the painful memories.

She told Kazuki everything. How she fell ill with cancer, how she desperately sought for medicine, how she was tricked by Muzan.

The way she killed her family.

Each second that passed, Kazuki felt his heart getting heavier and Tamayo probably felt no different. The things that she had to go through, it was not a weight anyone should carry. It almost seemed like a horror tale that some of those crazy Matagi hunters would tell you. Almost.

But part of him was glad that Tamayo told this to him now. Had she revealed this 3 years ago, Kazuki wouldn't even have hesitated to strike her down. However, after all the things she did for him—all the support and love he didn't deserve, yet she gave—the least he could do was believe her.

She was a good person, not a heartless monster, and Kazuki knew this.

But still, was there any point for Tamayo to tell him all of this? Was there a reason as to why she should drop this bombshell on him so suddenly?

"I'm so sorry to hear that, Tamayo-san," Kazuki finally said, eyes soft as he twiddled his thumbs.

Tamayo's face twitched, doing her best to not break her calm demeanor. "I still see them in my memories, begging me to stop…" She took a deep breath, composing herself. "My point is that you can never let go of old wounds. Even if you try to heal them and move on, the scars will still remain, and those scars will often sting."

He knew that.

He knew that so damn well.

It was the reason why he had been distressed for three whole years, why he never smiled, why he was always sick when seeing someone having a healthy relationship with their siblings.

"I know that..." Kazuki said, face solemn. "Tamayo-san...after all of that has happened to you, how can you still smile? Every time I see you helping others, being kind to Yushiro and me, you always seem to have this aura of...hope. W-Why? How do you do it?"

"Let me tell you something Kazuki..." Tamayo said, her voice as soft as a feather. "When I reached rock bottom, I thought that it was the end for me. I had no goals, no hope, I was an empty shell, until one day everything changed. There was someone, a symbol, that taught me that not all hope is lost, someone so strong that his legacy is on a never-ending hunt against Muzan."

"Tsugukuni Yoriichi, am I right?"

She nodded. "Yes, you are right, thanks to him I regained the flame of hope that was lost to me. After all, when you reach rock bottom, you can only go up."

Kazuki arched an eyebrow. "Do I... have to reach rock bottom to do something about my life?"

Tamayo turned to him horrified, offended even. "What?! Of course not! This is exactly why I wanted to have this talk with you. You don't have to experience something so horrible."

Kazuki blinked, surprised by her outburst. Definitely a bad time to even think about making snarky comments like that.

She sighed. "Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this is because despite all the tragedies that this world brings to you, and will still bring, you still need to have the courage to keep moving. Life is full of pain, but there's also love and beauty."

Move forward?

Could he really do something as dreamy as moving forward? There was just so much going on inside of his mind... so much turmoil. He just needed more time to think and organize his thoughts.

But... it had been three years that he had been 'organizing his thoughts'.

Kazuki lay down on the floor, looking at the ceiling, hands folded on his chest. Even if it was considered bad manners, Tamayo just let him do his thing, which was greatly appreciated.

"What am I going to do now?" he said, voice devoid of emotion.

"It is ultimately your decision, but I recommend that you talk to your brother."

There was finality in her voice, almost like a thunderclap, so at odds and different from the creaking wooden floor and hot air that it almost felt like a slap in the face. Kazuki's eyes were wide behind his glasses.

His first response was instantaneous. "I don't know about that… I don't-"

"You're afraid," Tamayo stated, her voice hitting Kazuki like a pile of bricks to the head. He turned away, not wanting to see her in the face.

Tamayo smiled, placing both hands on her lap. "It's okay to be afraid, Kazuki. You've been staying with us for three whole years, and telling you to face the fears from your past that suddenly may seem ridiculous, but… don't resent the only family member you have left. Family is one of the most precious treasures."

She sounded... hurt when she uttered those last words. Kazuki couldn't blame her, having no family members left in the world and seeing him hating on his brother is probably hurting her.

His only family...

She was wrong, Kazuki had a family right here, in Asakusa. To just leave them to find a man that caused so much pain seems like a fool's errand.

So why did a part of him still want to confront his brother? It might be out of anger, or sadness, he didn't know... but it was certainly the source of his troubles.

"I don't even know where he is," Kazuki muttered, his tone spitting venom like a dam. He took a seat, facing Tamayo directly.

"That won't be a problem, as you know, I have been in contact with the corps for quite a while. I can arrange a meeting."

He really needed to stop making such pathetic excuses.

He scowled, clenching both of his hands. "Even if I knew where he was, I don't think I'm ready to forgive him..."

"From what I've heard from the corps, your brother is a very good man. You just have to try."

Trying for something that might hurt him to the point of no return? Would it really be worth going on a journey because of that? To leave everything that he had here?

"Promise me, Kazuki," Tamayo pleaded, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Promise me that you will forgive him."

It was definitely wishful thinking on her part, but it wasn't something Kazuki wanted to refuse from the get go.

Did he want to go? Not in a million years. Did he need to go? Maybe.

Tamayo wasn't forcing him to do anything directly on him, but she was doing it indirectly. If Kazuki went on his journey, he would need to be prepared to face the unknown and his past. If he decided not to go, then his decision would hurt Tamayo bad... he hated having to hurt her.

She wasn't making this easy.

"I-I can't promise to the moon Tamayo-san," Kazuki blurted out, an apple lodging in his throat. "If I promise you this, wouldn't you be forcing me to do something I don't want to do? Aren't you placing your wishes in me to carry on?"

He stood up, his lips trembling while facing his guardian with a harsh glare. "Don't you think this is only yourself being selfish...?"

The woman looked down. "You are absolutely right."

There. That should do it.

"Then-"

"But... Every single day, your brother is out there risking his life for humanity. He could die any day, at any time while you are serving bowls of udon here in Tokyo. You are wasting the precious time you could spend with your real family, your real brethren." Tamayo said, her calm facade breaking as her eyes started to well up. "I would have done everything in my power to have a member of my family with me still, so don't waste this opportunity... b-because of pride! Please, I've seen it destroy too many families."

There it was, the face that Kazuki hated to see. She didn't break down, luckily, but the way she was trembling and clenching her kimono tightly was a dead giveaway to how she was feeling now. She was hurt... very hurt, and it was all his fault.

Even if Tamayo was indirectly forcing him to go and face his fears, it wasn't something he wanted to do from the get go. Maybe if he did take this journey, he would learn how to open up to his brother and find the answers he sought... even if it hurt like hell.

It took a very long time for him to open up to Tamayo, and much more time to Yushiro: who said that he wouldn't take the same time or longer with the slayers? Worse to the man that left to play hero with the corps. It was a gamble, a huge one, but something he had to do if he wanted to ease the turmoil inside of his mind.

He could use this journey to get used to the demon slaying business, and then... face the worst. He just needed time.

It was decided.

Kazuki sighed, easing up his posture as he took a seat next to Tamayo. She was looking at him expectantly, the silence of the room suffocating her.

He gulped, feeling nauseous all of a sudden. "W-Will this journey be worth it?"

Tamayo's eyes lit up but she kept her cool, maintaining her composure. "I can't assure that it will be. That is up for you to decide."

Of course he could decide which course of action to take in his journeys. It was the consequences of those actions that made it hard to determine its worth.

Kazuki sighed.

"Then... I will try to forgive him Tamayo-san... if that makes you feel better."

Her lips curved upwards, an action that left Kazuki dumbfounded.

"That's all I ask."

He was so dazed by Tamayo's angelic smile that he forgot she was patting his head.

* * *

Leaving his home was not easy for Kazuki, especially when he grew a strong bond with Tamayo and Yushiro. As Kazuki was packing his bags, he felt doubt every second, wondering if he made the right choice. Not like he could change that now; if he wanted to ease the turmoil inside of his mind, he had to do this.

There wasn't much to pack, only the essentials like just one spare of clothes and small provisions of rice balls. Tamayo said that he should only take one pair of clothes because the corps would provide him with a uniform suited for fighting, provided he passed their test.

Tamayo was insistent that Kazuki should change his current clothing style, much to his dismay. The reason for this was because he shouldn't fight demons with only a yukata, which could easily be broken by normal demon attacks.

She wasn't wrong. Kazuki had trouble keeping his clothing in place when he fought against Yahaba, so this was a welcome change.

He wore a white hippari style kimono with blue oval-shaped snowflake ornaments. Under his kimono, a black vest could be found, followed by black pants and white tabi socks on his lower half.

There was nothing else to pack now. It was time to leave for the town of Urawa, near Mt Natagumo where he was supposed to meet with the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps to see what became of him. Tamayo didn't lie when she said she had contacts with the corps. Then again, that was how he got his sword in the first place.

Kazuki sighed, standing in front of his guardian and 'step-brother' in the basement of their old clinic. His bag was in his hand, ready to go on his journey.

Yushiro had managed to find a new place for them to stay in Akihabara. It was a little bit cramped and unstable, but it was what they managed to get because Tamayo said that she was short on cash. The demon boy said that the place was so old that he could feel the dust filling up his lungs.

All of this didn't make sense to Kazuki.

For the past few days, Tamayo always lacked money for some unknown reason, and she didn't accept any of Kazuki's own money from selling his udon which was... certainly strange. Sure, she had to pay for all of her medical supplies which got destroyed by the demons, but that was easily replaceable. She was a doctor, and a very good one at that, she should've had a lot of money in her pocket to get herself a decent place to stay. So why didn't she?

Not like it mattered at this point, he had to leave this place now.

"Then, I'll be off," Kazuki said, bowing his head low.

"Wait Kazuki!" Tamayo said as she raised her hand. "Before you go, there's something I want to give you."

Kazuki perked up, wondering what the woman wanted to give him.

She whistled.

"Meow!"

Kazuki blinked, hearing a familiar feline sound from the back. He heard a few pounces falling from the ceiling and then a few rapid steps coming towards him. Then it appeared, a tricolor calico cat, its big amber eyes staring at the whitenette.

He knew exactly who this cat was. He was starting to miss it because of its absence in the past few days. Did it ever eat anything?

"Chachamaru? So, you were hiding here all along?" Kazuki mused, causing the feline to tilt its head. The cat jumped onto his shoulder and then started to nuzzle his face. The boy recoiled back at the sudden display of affection from the animal. "Hey, stop that!"

Tamayo giggled amused by the cat's actions. "I want you to take her on your journey. I trust you're okay with it?"

"I should be the one asking that. How would you send messages in the first place?"

"I can find another cat, don't worry about it," Tamayo said, quickly reassuring the boy. Her eyes then lit up, as if she remembered something. "That reminds me, there's something else I want to give you. I think it was over here..."

She started to dig into her sleeve and pulled out a small object, a black case with two round circles. She opened, revealing two small transparent objects. Kazuki tilted his head as he was a little distracted on the sight of his reflection from the glassy objects.

His eyes widened as realization struck him—this was no mere piece of glass!

"Those are-"

Yushiro, who was also watching, yanked the object out of Tamayo's hand to get a good look at it, an action that would never cross his mind unless it was something of huge importance.

Kazuki could see the shocked expression on his face as he gawked at the object.

"CONTACT LENSES?!" Yushiro howled, making Tamayo and Kazuki recoil back. "I-I read that they were only available in Europe. To find them here... Tamayo-sama, this must have cost a fortune!"

Oh.

So that's why Tamayo always seemed to have less money than she normally should! Contact lenses in Japan were nonexistent. To find them here would mean buying it from a fence who always had their prices sky high!

It all clicked into Kazuki's mind. The reason why she had a less comfortable place for living, the reason why she was missing money the past couple of days even with her successful profession as a doctor...

This was insane.

Kazuki started to sweat bullets, finding no words to say to the woman. "A-Are you sure you want to give me these Tamayo-san?" he blurted out. "How can I ever pay you back for them?!"

"You don't have to pay me anything, silly boy. It's a gift to my son!" she said, smiling sweetly.

Son.

Now that was a word he hadn't heard in a long time. Coming from Tamayo, it made him feel funny on the inside.

Tamayo then looked at him expectantly. "Stop gawking at them and try them on."

Of course she would want him to try them on.

"Uh, sure..." Kazuki said, taking off his glasses and handing them to Tamayo. His vision got very blurry, courtesy of his condition. Yushiro quickly handed him the lenses.

He then slowly but surely started to move the lenses and carefully placed them on top of his eyes. Kazuki grunted; it hurt like hell at first but he would have to get used to them.

He blinked once. Then twice.

His blurry vision then started to be replaced by a perfect sight: no stains, no scratches, and he didn't feel the weight of having normal glasses on his face.

It was like a blessing.

"Can you see?" Tamayo asked.

"As good as a bird..." Kazuki said absentmindedly. He was feeling overwhelmed by all the kindness Tamayo had given to him. "I-I don't know what to-" He choked up a bit. "Thank you!"

"This will greatly benefit you in battle. You won't have to worry about your glasses being destroyed. Just remember that you will—"

Kazuki couldn't even think at this point and dashed to Tamayo to give her a big hug, which took her aback. He didn't blame her for being surprised by this action; the last time he hugged her was a long time ago. Ever since then, he was usually reserved, rarely showing overwhelming emotion.

"Thank you, for everything you have done for me." he sniffed, tears flowing down his face. "I-I'm gonna miss you Tamayo-san, really, I won't forget what you've done for me..."

Tamayo smiled, allowing the tears from her eyes to flow as well. She hugged him back. "And I will pray for your success, my boy..."

Kazuki kept hugging Tamayo for a while until he started to hear a low—but menacing—growl in his direction. He opened his eyes and saw Yushiro giving him one of the deadliest glares he could muster.

The whitenette didn't have time to understand the meaning behind the glare and grabbed Yushiro by his sleeve, pulling him into the hug.

"And thank you too, Yushiro, for always being there to give me a slap in the face every time I screwed up."

The scowl of the demon was replaced by a mad blush, not because he was so close to Kazuki, but because he was dangerously close to Tamayo. He began to sweat bullets, desperately looking for a way out.

"Y-Yeah... look, you're freaking me out. Let me go!" Yushiro shrieked, effectively freeing himself from Kazuki's grip.

He pulled away from the hug and briefly looked again to the people that had kept him here.

Tamayo frowned and lightly elbowed Yushiro. The demon boy looked away, embarrassed, but then gave in and made his way to Kazuki. He lightly pressed a fist against the boy's chest.

"Stay safe..."

He was still looking away, but the gesture counted either way.

A ghost of a smile appeared on Kazuki's face, briefly thinking about the moments he had with both demons. He bowed his head.

"Well, I'm off."

* * *

It was just another day for Tsuyuri Kanao.

Get up, eat, help at the estate, train, and sleep. Rinse and repeat.

She occasionally went to missions and when she did, she was sent alone. It was best to send her alone as she was not that good when it came to teamwork.

That's why it was surprising for her when someone asked for her help on a mission. As usual, she tossed her coin so it could decide whether she should go or not. Heads would be yes and tails would be no.

The coin landed on her palm.

She got heads.

Luckily, she wouldn't have to worry about the people getting in the way since she knew the person who asked for her help.

She just needed him to get moving. Which was the hardest part.

Arriving at the local village of Yono, Kanao found herself being waved at by the local townsfolk, in which she waved back at them with a smile as was common courtesy. She walked as she tried to find her destination. It was evening, so the only local food stand must have had its lights on by now.

She finally stopped as her eyes landed on the particular place in question.

It was an Izakaya.

Izakayas were traditional japanese bars that were scattered all around Japan. They were highly popular all around the country, but it was not a place Kanao should've been visiting at her age.

Not like she had a choice now.

'Charming…'

The place was relatively small on the outside, built with mostly muddy oak wood, two paper lamps on both ends. The front door was covered in cheap checkered blankets that looked like they were taken out of the trash.

Despite its less than appealing style, the sounds inside were a giveaway that the place was quite popular around this village. Maybe it was because it was the only bar in town.

She made her way inside of the establishment, hoping to find the people she was looking for.

"Hahaa~! I knew he was alive, Kyojuro! I just can't belieeeeeeve it, I thought I had lost him forever!"

"That's excellent news Junichiro! I never knew you had a brother in the first place!"

There they were. The two men she must go with on this mission. They were sitting next to each other as they laughed at the top of their lungs. It made customers and the caterer visibly uncomfortable.

The difference was that one was sober, while the other one had an extremely red face which meant that he was on the verge of falling over.

The sober one was a guy with long messy yellow hair with red streaks around it. The most noticeable thing about him were his unusually large eyebrows and his bright golden eyes. This was the Flame Pillar, Rengoku Kyojuro, and he was one of the people that would accompany Kanao on this mission.

The drunk one looked slightly older than Kyojuro. He had long white hair with blue streaks tied in a ponytail, similar to the samurai from the Sengoku Era. He was very tall, passing 180 centimeters. He had icy blue eyes, thin eyebrows and a defined jawline. He wore the standard Demon Slayer uniform and on top of it, he had a long white haori that had sky blue patterns, like a rift. The most notable thing about him was that he was missing his left arm, which was why his left sleeve looked like a waving flag. This was the Ice Pillar, Miyamoto Junichiro, Kanao's older step brother and her teacher.

He didn't seem to notice Kanao's blank stare as he kept laughing over and over. However, Kyojuro did notice her and waved his hand enthusiastically.

"Ah, Tsuyuri-chan! What brings you to this fine establishment?" Kyojuro asked, taking a sip from his bottled water.

"The mission," Kanao said. "We're supposed to go on a mission to Mt. Natagumo to check on the missing slayers."

Kyojuro blinked, pondering his thoughts for a moment before his eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, I remember now. Sorry Tsuyuri-chan I guess I was a bit too immersed in my talk with Junichiro that I lost track of what I had to do. Did you know that his blood brother is alive? I was just as surprised as he was when I—"

Kanao lost track of what the Flame Pillar was saying as she focused on one tiny detail. Junichiro had family outside of the Butterfly Estate? That was... surprising. He never talked about it in the times he was with her or Shinobu.

So this is why he looked so elated this morning.

"—and then he took down 2 demons without effort. He must be very strong, yes? I would probably make him my Tsugoku if I see him. Yeah, I definitely would, no question—"

"Rengoku-san," Kanao said, causing Kyojuro to stop mid sentence. "The mission."

"Oh, my bad! I tend to get carried away when I'm talking!" Kyojuro said with a little bit too much force. Kanao didn't pay too much mind as she glanced at Junichiro, who was currently drooling on the counter.

"Is Nii-san okay?"

"Oh, him?!" Kyojuro jerked a thumb to the person in question. "He's fine. He just had too much to drink in one night. I would have followed him in that regard but due to personal reasons I will not!"

Kanao felt a little bit of sweat dropping on her forehead. He really didn't have to say that out loud.

"We have no time," Kanao said, pulling out a vial that contained a brilliant, purple liquid. "Nee-san said that if I found him in that state, he should drink this."

Kyojuro perked up and took the small item from her hands. Puzzled, he asked, "And what is this purple stuff?"

"Medicine," Kanao replied with a smile. "It should help him to recover quickly. Rengoku-san, would you please make him drink it?"

Kyojuro beamed. "But of course!" He flipped the vial like a coin and grabbed it midair. "It will be my pleasure."

He then turned to the fallen Junichiro and placed the vial in front of his face. "Hey Junichiro, drink this medicine. It will fix you up in a matter of seconds!"

Junichiro slowly opened one of his eyes and frowned. He grunted and quickly looked away from him. "I don't wanna."

Kyojuro slapped Junichiro's back in an attempt to gain his attention. "Quit being a child, we have to go on a mission!" Only for the Pillar to harshly swing his head face flat on the counter.

"No!"

Kanao just stood there as she stared blankly at them. She would just watch them go.

Kyojuro grinned from ear to ear. "Alright then..." He removed the cork from the vial and pulled the whitenette by the back of his uniform, who was too drunk to even react in time. "Keep in mind you brought this upon yourself!"

"What are you-"

Junichiro didn't have time to finish as Kyojuro forcefully opened his mouth and drove the purple liquid inside. The drunk pillar widened his eyes and quickly slapped his hands away from him. He then spat all of the vial's contents to the floor.

Kyojuro visibly panicked as he quickly used his quick reflexes to catch the falling liquid back into the vial. That was certainly impressive; it seemed that the Flame Pillar wasn't just a title.

This was going to take a while, so Kanao just took a seat beside them and waited patiently.

"I will... NOT drink that." Junichiro spat, letting out a slight burp. "It tastes like shit, so take that vial and stick it up your—"

Kyojuro tried again to make him drink the medicine. This time he gripped Junichiro's arm tightly and used his other arm to shove the vial inside of his mouth. "Come on, just drink it!"

"I will not!" Junichiro said as he yanked the vial out of Kyojuro's hand and threw it away, only for him to catch it midair.

The Flame Pillar seemed to get fired up for the challenge as he let a wide toothy grin form on his face.

"I wasn't asking!"

Their bickering triggered unwanted looks towards them, not that they cared, they always acted like no one was around them. If they kept going with this, they would surely get kicked out.

Not like it mattered to Kanao, she knew how things worked regarding these two. Ever since she was brought to the Butterfly Estate at the age of 11, she had always perceived Kyojuro and Junichiro as inseparable, so she was very used to their shenanigans.

"Quit it!" Junichiro turned his head away from the incoming vial. Kyojuro grinned mischievously, having anticipated the horrible attempt to avoid the medicine. He raised his fist.

"I'm very sorry for this!"

Kyojuro drove a hard punch towards the Ice Pillar's gut, making him wince harshly, which forced him to catch breath.

"Kyojuro, you son of a-"

He couldn't finish his sentence as the Flame Pillar drove the vial once again to his mouth. This time, he made sure he swallowed every last drop.

"There you go." Kyojuro grinned, finally letting his friend go. "That wasn't so hard now wasn't it?"

Junichiro's face twisted into disgust as he gagged on the taste of the medicine. He then started to blink, seemingly puzzled on something. He started to touch every part of his body and his face, eagerly waiting for the medicine to take its effect.

"Apart from that it tastes like horse shit, no, it wasn't hard," Junichiro said, letting out a chuckle. His face was still red, so the effects of the alcohol were still there. "Is this supposed to do something?"

Kyojuro hummed, seemingly disappointed that the Ice Pillar was still drunk. He then turned to look at Kanao. "Tsuyuri-chan, was that medicine supposed to do something?"

The girl didn't say anything, she just kept on her ever present smile and waited for the medicine to take effect. Her sister did say that the medicine took a second before taking effect.

Junichiro seemed to finally notice that Kanao was there as he let out a big, genuine smile.

"Ah~ my lovely little sis, what are you doing here? Are you finally going to give your brother a big hug—"

Junichiro's eyes widened as he let out a small burp. Then another one.

He then clenched his stomach tightly as he started to gag harshly. Murmurs and panicking came over the customers as they watched the Ice Pillar's cheeks puff up. Kanao was also visibly surprised. She didn't know what this medicine did to him.

Junichiro didn't waste any more time as he stood up from the stool and quickly ran out of the bar as fast as the wind. After a couple of seconds of silence, the sounds of barfing could be heard from outside of the establishment.

Kyojuro gawked, having not expected that reaction at all. It seems like he expected the medicine to be more discreet in its execution. The Flame Pillar glanced at Kanao, silently waiting for an explanation.

"Nee-san did say that the medicine will remove the alcohol from his body," Kanao explained, visibly uncomfortable too. "She didn't specify how."

Kyojuro blinked before letting out a wholehearted laugh. "Ha! This is definitely something Kocho would do!"

Just as Kyojuro was laughing, the entrance of the cart opened. Junichiro's face was now normal, showing that the effects of the medicine had worked. However, he looked very upset.

"I'm going to kill her..."

"So, are you alright now, partner?" Kyojuro asked, oblivious to his rage.

"My entire body is burning and my mouth smells like rotten eggs."

"Great! You seem more sober now. You need something?"

"Water. A lot," Junichiro said as he rubbed his temples. "And a quick summary on what the mission was supposed to be again."

After Junichiro drank approximately two liters of water in ten minutes, he seemed to be feeling like his usual self. He wasn't completely sober, as the aftereffects of the alcohol left him with a lingering hangover, but at least he could think properly now. Kanao had told him every detail about the mission, from the missing slayers to the obvious demonic presence that lingered there.

He took a sip from his pipe—a kiseru—and exhaled, letting the smoke come out freely out of his mouth. This was an item he usually carried around ever since the fateful day when Kanao's big sister, Kocho Kanae passed away.

"So we have to go to Mt. Natagumo to rescue missing rookies and deal with the demon threat," Junichiro mused, as he placed the kiseru inside his uniform. He then rested his hand on his chin. "And we're the ones who are the nearest..."

"That pretty much sums it up!" Kyojuro yelled, quickly standing up from his stool. "Well then, we should waste no more time. The longer we stay here, the more people are in danger!"

Kanao stood up, getting ready to go as well. She double checked her gear to see that everything was in order. Kyojuro was right, there was no reason for them to linger any longer in this place.

However, her brother seemed to not be moving from his spot. He was still frozen, deeply in thought.

Kyojuro seemed to notice and poked him in the forehead. "Hey Junichiro, you in there?"

That seemed to bring him back to reality as he recoiled a little from the Flame Pillar's poke. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine. It's just... I wanted to go to Asakusa to investigate the whereabouts of my brother." He sighed, eyes glued on the ground. "I guess that has to wait..."

Kanao blinked, not understanding what her brother meant. Was this really more important than his responsibility as a slayer? Even Kyojuro frowned when Junichiro said that. It was really preposterous.

However, Kyojuro placed a hand on his shoulder, a gesture that seemed to gain the Ice Pillar's attention.

"Don't worry, Junichiro. He can wait for another time," he said, his tone firm. "What you're saying is absolute selfishness! Remember, saving lives comes first. Our desires come after."

Junichiro looked to the side, ashamed. "Yeah, I know... sorry."

"If it makes you feel better, I'll go to look for him with you after the mission!" Kyojuro shouted, with his fist raised high. The sudden change of attitude made Kanao recoil back.

It was really hard to understand how the Flame Pillar radiated so much intensity. He really had the eye of the tiger. Kanao had trouble understanding people in general, but it was pretty easy to understand the Pillar, even for her.

It appeared that Kyojuro's words didn't ease Junichiro's distress, but at least it led him to grasp an understanding on what he had to do. He grinned, having come to a decision.

"You're right. Thanks, Kyojuro."

* * *

**"Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word." – George R.R. Martin**

**If you reached to this point, then thank you so much for reading my story! It means a lot to me. I want to thank the ones that helped me with this chapter. Those are: 666-HyuugaNeji-999, BANIX, intata, and Mad-Reader.**


	4. Miyamoto

"Sleep, child~"

He could see scenes of recent carnage. Fierce fire burning through all the houses. People were screaming as they were slowly being burned alive by the ruins of their own home. He could smell the smoke of charred bodies.

Blood spattered the floor as people killed themselves against their will. There was no reason for this slaughter, but demons did it anyways in a foolish attempt to survive, or for enjoyment. Most likely both.

It was a total Armaggeddon.

Kazuki wanted to move his arms and legs, only to find out they were unresponsive. His body didn't let him perform any actions. He wanted to run, but he couldn't. He wanted to punch himself in the face to wake up from this nightmare. All for nothing. He could only move his eyes.

He scanned his surroundings.

Top.

Left.

Right.

He looked all over the place, trying to find a reason for all the bloodshed. But he knew better than anyone that killing has no moral reason, it came with one's uncontrollable desires. That was the sad reality that was forced into Kazuki.

Because of that reality, Kazuki remembered the place he was in. His eyes widened and tears started to well up.

Amakusa, one of the four main islands of Japan. While the place always had to endure harsh conditions, one couldn't deny that it was a place filled with the happiness of hardworking people who always had each other's back.

All of that happiness crumbled to the ground. All because one demon decided to show up.

"Don't wake up, child~"

That voice. That damn voice echoed all the way inside of his head. It was as seductive as it was infuriating. It needed to stop.

"It's all just a funny dream..."

Death is not fun, it serves no purpose in life, it merely ends it.

This voice wanted to sprout nonsense inside his brain.

"Do I have to come for you~?"

He blinked once and his face blanched. Two big light blue eyes stared at him directly. He could recognize that dreaded kanji that was engraved in the demon's left eye.

_Lower Moon One_

Why does this memory keep coming back to him? Is it really that hard to forget the past?

Stop. Stop. Stop.

"You can't run away forever Kazuki-kun~"

* * *

"STOP!"

Waking up after a nightmare felt like hell. One had to deal with the symptoms after the experience. Kazuki's breath became shallow and ragged. His face was drenched in sweat. He felt hot all over the place.

He tried to focus by closing his eyes. He focused on the faint sound of the wind and moving roots.

He took a deep breath.

Inhale.

Exhale.

He felt his heart rate getting slower. Now he could make sense of what was going on and focus thoroughly.

Why did that memory decide to haunt him again? After all this time?

Kazuki had presented symptoms of insomnia in the past, but they had calmed down as he stayed more with Tamayo. Was he starting to miss her already?

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt a light tap on his knee. He looked down into it.

Chachamaru held a handkerchief in her mouth as she lightly tapped her paw on Kazuki's hand. The little kitty went through all the trouble of opening his bag to fetch what Kazuki needed the most. He smiled.

It was always good to have a reliable partner in these situations.

Kazuki grabbed the handkerchief and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

Chachamaru meowed, catching the whitenette's attention.

"It's okay buddy, just a weird dream, that's all," Kazuki said as he patted the feline's head. She purred at his touch. He went towards his bag and grabbed a small case. He opened the case and grabbed a piece of raw chicken. "You hungry? Catch."

He threw the food up in the air. Chachamaru jumped swiftly and caught the chicken. She started to devour it.

Kazuki grinned and made a thumbs up.

"Good girl," he said as he grabbed his bag. "Come on, we should get going. We have a visitor waiting for us in the next town."

She jumped on top of Kazuki's head.

Kazuki sighed and walked forward towards the next town. It was time to have an audience with the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps.

* * *

Urawa was very well known for its optimistic atmosphere. Every single corner of the town brimmed with life. People were working as hard as they could. They smiled and laughed without having a care in the world.

What made Urawa stand out from the rest of the towns was its huge variety of food. It had sushi, ramen, dumplings—

No! He had to focus. His contact waited for him inside of a Shinto shrine and he couldn't make him wait much longer. It was 1 P.M. He was supposed to go to the shrine at midday.

He sighed, he would have had Chachamaru guide him towards the shrine if it wasn't sleeping on top of his head.

That was until he caught a sniff of recently-steamed bread to his right side.

The dumplings just came out of the pot…

The old lady by the stand seemed to notice as she waved her frail hand to Kazuki. He walked towards the stand.

"Young man, care to try out our cuisine?" she asked as she pointed towards the steaming pot.

Meat dumplings…

On second thought, his contact could wait a little bit more.

One hour passed…

With a full stomach and a clear head, Kazuki set forth to meet his contact.

Making them wait was a little rude on his part, but food was food, and he would never refuse to eat a good meal.

He sighed as he walked across town, analyzing his surroundings for any signs that indicated that there was a shrine nearby. He needed to find a torii.

A torii was a symbolic gateway that separated the sacred land and ordinary land. It was made out of wood and built with two uprights and two cross pieces. Various gateways represented different gods but Kazuki wasn't very knowledgeable in Shintoism, so he didn't pay much attention to which god the gate belonged to.

"Now… where the hell is that shrine?" Kazuki mused as he strolled around the town. He looked sideways for any signs of his objective.

It frustrated him that the letter that they sent to Tamayo contained the date of the meeting, but the details of the location were very vague.

'You will know when you see it.'

What did it mean that he would know when he saw it? He wasn't a fortune teller.

He stopped as soon as he saw the torii of the shrine. Kazuki blinked and scrubbed his eyes.

"Shit..."

Stairs. An infinite amount of stairs. Kazuki squinted as he tried his best to see what lay on top of the mountain, only for it to be shrouded by the rest of the clouds. The path was long, way too long!

So that was why no one told him about the exact place.

He sighed. Talk about Karma.

He started to climb up the stairs, step by step.

He would definitely get to the top.

Any minute now…

* * *

A woman kneeled in front of Susanoo's altar. She had pale but healthy skin and her lustrous white hair was tied in a ponytail.

It is said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a hurricane around the world. Every single choice, every single action one takes matters as much as the actions one doesn't take.

Those words came out of her husband's mouth, Ubuyashiki Kagaya. It was considered the code of the Ubuyashiki family and the essence as to why they supported Demon Slayers across generations.

Amane picked up this principle as well. She wanted to make sure that her actions carried the same weight as her husband's in the search for strong individuals to take down Muzan.

While Miyamoto Kazuki, brother of the Ice Pillar, looked like a promising candidate to join their forces, recruiting him would prove to be a troublesome task.

Finding him proved hard enough because he was kept hidden from the corps for a long time. This was a personal request from Tamayo, the person whom the slayers had kept contact with over the past years. The reason why she kept Kazuki hidden from the corps proved to be a valid concern, as the boy seemed mentally weak when handling situations related to them.

As much as Amane hated to admit, the boy's resentment towards the corps was…not at all unreasonable. Similar cases had appeared ever since Muzan started his reign of terror, and the Demon Slayer had to bear this guilt as part of the job, as they were unable to control the terrible events that could happen within the world. They couldn't be everywhere at all times.

Amane's thoughts were interrupted as she heard sounds coming from behind. She finished her meditation as she gave one final prayer. She stood up and turned to look at the source.

It was a boy with white hair with blue strands. His eyes were light blue like the sky on a sunny day.

Amane could tell that this boy bore a strong resemblance to the Ice Pillar, so she was sure that he was Miyamoto Kazuki.

But there was something odd about him. He was panting, heavily. His clothes were drenched in sweat and his face seemed as red as a tomato. Did something happen to him on the way here?

Didn't he notice the cat that was sleeping on top of his head? It could possibly be his familiar…

The boy entered the shrine and started to quickly look around. Amane started to approach him.

"Did you purify yourself?" Amane asked calmly.

Kazuki turned to look at her. His eyebrows rose. "Purify…?"

Amane sighed and grabbed a nearby wooden bucket. She went towards the pond and started to fill it with sacred water.

Kazuki walked forwards and looked between her and the pond.

"What are you–"

Whatever sound that wanted to come out of his mouth was silenced as soon as Amane poured the entire bucket of water into Kazuki's face. She kept her stoic expression as she watched the young man cough up the water that got into his throat. The calico cat opened its eyes and shivered from the cold water. It dropped from the young man's forehead and sent a loud hiss to the woman, before it started to run away.

Amane simply left the empty bucket on the floor.

Kazuki kept a deadpan face as he stared intently at the priestess. He took a long deep breath.

"…Normally, I would be angry if someone dropped a bucket full of water on me, but given that I had to climb up an innumerable amount of stairs and I was sweating like crazy, that bath was very much needed."

Amane got a towel from inside her kimono and handed it to the boy. Kazuki took it and wrapped himself with the towel.

"Pardon me, but it is part of our tradition. You must be purified before entering any Shinto Shrine," Amane stated bluntly. "I assume that you must be Miyamoto Kazuki?"

Kazuki's eyes widened and he started to slowly back away. Amane smiled. It seemed that this boy was a cautious one. A nice trait to have in demon slaying missions.

"I never told you my name…" he muttered.

"I apologize, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ubayashaki Amane, I'm the wife of the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps. My husband's health is quite poor, so he was unable to come here as requested. I'm here on his behalf," she said as she bowed politely. Kazuki eased his posture. He nodded.

"You took quite some time to get here," Amane remarked.

Kazuki looked away. "I was doing some important business..." he said as he caressed his arm. He shook his head and glared at the priestess. "Anyway, I had a bunch of questions for the leader, not you."

Amane paid no heed to the boy's rudeness and nodded. "And I will answer them to the best of my ability. Please, let us go outside, we shouldn't disturb the gods like this."

She walked towards the backyard, with Kazuki tagging along. She bathed herself in the gentle breeze of the garden. The boy felt it too as he closed his eyes and regulated his breath.

Such is the power of the garden, it allows you to clear your mind and enter into a stage of Zen.

The pleasant silence made it perfect to talk about sensitive topics.

"The message sent by Tamayo-sama told us that you wanted to speak to my husband and the Ice Pillar," Amane said as they strolled around the garden. "Unfortunately, Miyamoto Junichiro is currently on a mission, so you will have to wait for his return."

Kazuki blinked. "When will he come back?"

"That I don't know, but you can wait for him in his house. He lives in the Butterfly Estate. I can give you the address so you can meet up with him as soon as he comes back," Amane said. "Do you perhaps have a piece of paper?"

Kazuki said nothing and opened his bag. He pulled out an old journal and a pen, ripped off one page from the journal and handed it to Amane.

"You have my thanks," she said as she started to write on the piece of paper.

She wrote all the possible details to make sure the kid didn't get lost. She handed back the paper. Kazuki took it and started to read its contents. He nodded.

"Now then, I assume you didn't come here just to ask where to find your brother. You wanted to discuss something important with my husband, right?"

Kazuki stopped walking. Amane took notice of it and stopped in her tracks.

"Yes... " Kazuki said, looking away from her. "I wanted to know what happened to the slayers that didn't come to The Island of Amakusa four years ago… when we literally begged for your help."

Amane sighed. She saw this question coming from a mile away. "Very well. Please, follow me."

She walked towards the nearby shrine of Susanoo and kneeled in front of him. Kazuki took a seat cross-legged.

"Please respect the gods, Kazuki-san." She raised her tone but kept her stoic expression. "I will not answer your questions unless you take the appropriate stance. We're not in a place where you can do whatever you want."

Kazuki growled and did what he was told. He changed his posture into the appropriate kneeling position, which was sitting on one's knees. Amane nodded.

The silence was suffocating. Neither of them spoke as Amane was busy gathering her thoughts. This topic came from Kazuki's personal issues, so she had to construct her response in a manner that wouldn't upset the boy. She wasn't sure if that would be even possible.

"…Two days before the incident, we were informed about the demon attack that occurred in Amakusa. We sent two of our Pillars to deal with it, alongside other high ranked slayers."

"It took twelve hours for the demon to find and kill everyone," Kazuki said as he clenched his fists into balls. "Yet they never arrived… why?"

"That's because a mighty enemy intercepted them. It was the Upper Moon Two," Amane explained. "Out of twenty slayers, only two people survived."

Kazuki gulped. The boy looked stunned by this piece of information, and he had a very good reason to look surprised. People that fought against Upper Moons didn't live to tell the tale, even if they were on Pillar level strength. No one had managed to defeat an Upper Moon ever since Rengoku Shigeru's victory 100 years ago.

"I'm surprised they even survived that battle…" Kazuki muttered.

"It was a huge loss for the corps. That fateful day, we lost one of our Flower Pillar, Kocho Kanae." Amane frowned as she remembered that fateful day. The devastation. If it wasn't because of the Flame Pillar's optimism, Junichiro would have killed himself. She thanked the gods for his assistance.

Amane would have kept dwelling on those thoughts if she didn't notice how Kazuki reacted to this information. She would have thought that he would be indifferent to it, but she was mistaken.

He started to sweat bullets as he placed his palm on his forehead. Amane's eyes widened. She didn't expect that type of reaction from him.

Interesting. She had to choose her next words carefully to get the information she wanted.

She would stay in silence until the kid calmed down. No one was going to tell you concrete information when they were panicking. As the kid began to ease his posture, Amane opened her mouth.

"Excuse me… did you perhaps meet our former Pillar before?" she asked, her tone soft.

Kazuki took a deep breath and sighed. "No, I have not met her," he said as he bit his lip. "But my mother and I were supposed to meet her… as my brother's betrothed."

Amane's eyes widened. So that was it! Of course, he would know about the Ice Pillar's relationship with the former Flower Pillar. Important news like that was supposed to be shared between the family first.

"So, because the slayer fought against an Upper Moon, they weren't able to come to save everyone from my village…" Kazuki gritted his teeth as he clenched his hands in the fabric of his trousers. "Another promise was broken by unfortunate circumstances. At least that guy is still alive…"

Amane raised an eyebrow. That guy? It seemed that their brotherly relationship was sour. She hoped that they would make amends soon.

Pushing that thought aside, another issue piqued Amane's interest. The kid was not as naïve as young people tended to be. He had already experienced betrayal. Once a promise was broken, 'sorry' meant nothing.

It was understandable that he didn't trust the corps. However, that mindset would prove to be troublesome if he joined the corps.

To kill demons, one needed teamwork to be successful. Working alone was a death sentence when hunting a demon. Even the stubborn and volatile Wind Pillar understood this.

Amane needed to gain his trust.

"It was our fault for our own lack of planning. We didn't take into account that the route they were going to take was going to be linked to an Upper Moon," Amane said as she bowed abruptly. "For that, we are truly sorry."

As much as Amane desired to have Kazuki on their side, the words she spoke were the truth. They failed to save someone who asked them for help, and that would be a burden they'd have to bear.

She stayed in that position long enough to wonder why the kid hadn't said anything to her.

She raised her head to see that Kazuki was looking at her with a deadpan face.

He sighed. "Your apology will not resurrect anyone from my village."

She stood up and coughed awkwardly. "I know we can't amend our actions done in the past, so we can understand your desire to not join us. But… we could very well use someone of your caliber on our ranks. A descendant of the Sword Saint is someone that can help us greatly in our battle with the demons."

Kazuki frowned. Looks like Amane's proposal didn't seem to get to him.

"Why do people assume this? Just because my last name is 'Miyamoto' doesn't mean I'm a descendant of Musashi," he muttered as he narrowed his eyes at her. "History says that The Sword Saint only had three sons. All adopted. Not once he had a blood relative, and even if he did, there is no way it would pass centuries unnoticed. Please stop making worthless assumptions."

Miyamoto Musashi was known as one of the best swordsmen of his time. He was known as someone who didn't lose a battle once in his life thanks to his flawless strategies and prowess with the sword. A philosopher like no other.

Kazuki spoke the truth. The Sword Saint only adopted three sons and not once he had a true son. Amane knew that books of history would rarely lie, so maybe she'd just found out an interesting piece of information regarding Kazuki's hometown.

There was a shrine dedicated to Miyamoto Musashi in the islands of Amakusa. Also, the Ice Pillar and Kazuki were born in that place. Coincidence? Amane didn't think of it that way.

Musashi had made various enemies across his lifetime, so it would be understandable that if he ever had blood children, he would've kept them in secret. She asked The Ice Pillar about his ancestors as well, but even he didn't know about it. It wouldn't surprise her that Kazuki would be ignorant to this matter as well.

Even with that in mind, Amane persisted.

"Actions speak louder than words, Kazuki-san. From what I've read from the report of the slayer, Kamado Tanjiro, you are competent enough to compensate for the weakness of your breath with your strategies—as reckless as they are. Had you received any training before Tamayo-san took you in?"

Kazuki looked away. "My… brother taught me the basics on how to use a sword and five forms of his breath style, not much more than that," he said as he rubbed his arm. "But that's not enough. After my entire village got slaughtered, I had to survive in the woods for 1 year. To survive I had to learn how to hunt, climb, and run. I had to be smart about it too, as my chances to survive were… pretty slim. Next thing I knew, I was faster, stronger, and my skill with the sword had reached new heights."

Amane's gaze softened. Not only did Kazuki get his entire village slaughtered by a demon, but he also had to deal with the predators and demons that dwell in the woods… for a whole year. It was surprising that Kazuki remained in one piece.

She bit her lower lip. As much as curiosity was killing her, she would drop the subject for now. "I'm sorry to hear that, Kazuki-san."

He nodded. "It's okay, it happened a long time ago."

"Very well, then that brings me back to my original question. Would you please join the Demon Slayer Corps? I know that you resent us but—"

"Sure, I'll join."

The next words died on her tongue as soon as she heard Kazuki's answer. "Eh?"

"Like I said, I'll join."

Amane blinked. Did she hear that right? Would he join the corps? Just like that?

"…Why?"

Kazuki scratched the back of his head. "Just to be clear… I don't trust you, nor do I trust anyone inside the corps. Well, if you expected another answer, then you'll be disappointed. The reason I want to join is that I want a quiet life."

Amane raised an eyebrow. "A quiet… life?"

Now, this was odd. Most of the slayers joined the corps because they wanted to avenge their loved ones or that they wanted to save people from being killed by demons. But this kid just wanted to have a quiet life? Wouldn't it be better if he just didn't join at all?

"Looks like I need to do some explaining…" He sighed. "Listen, I live with Tamayo and Yushiro, they mean everything to me, and if I could live my entire life with them… I would do so without a second thought. Problem is, I'm unable to do that if Muzan is alive. He's always chasing after Tamayo, over and over, and we always have to run from one location to another because he keeps sending demons to us. And frankly… I'm sick of it."

So the prey got tired of being chased and it was now the one doing the chasing. It was… an odd reason to risk his life fighting demons but not at all unreasonable. Muzan would not stop until Tamayo was dead, so he either had to keep running, or face him head-on, he chose the latter.

"Well, it is good to see that you want to fight for our cause. To join us, you need to pass The Final Selection exam. We will provide you with a new blade for you to use in the test."

"My sword is fine as it is right now. I made sure to sharpen it before going out," Kazuki said, unsheathing his sword and showing it to Amane. The blade's sky blue color and golden ornaments made it a beautiful sight to behold. The kid sheathed his blade once again.

"That's good to hear. Then, if you pass the test, then you will be officially part of the Demon Slayer Corps and be able to go on missions," Amane said as she pulled out a card from under her kimono. The card explained in detail what The Final Selection was about. "Your test will be held here, in one week. You will be joining the corps starting in the lowest of our ranks… if you manage to survive the exam, that is. Until then, be sure to hone your skills to the fullest, Kazuki-san."

Kazuki nodded as he took the card. He stood up and bowed.

As the whitenette left, Amane couldn't help but ponder on his objective. A quiet life… just that line of thought made her chuckle a little. It seemed like an impossible dream.

* * *

Kazuki panted as he reached the bottom of the stairs. With the dawn of the industrial age—or the Meiji period in Japan—he was surprised that inventors had yet to make a machine that carried people who found it troublesome to use stairs.

All in due time.

He perked up when he saw a small furball running at him. He narrowed his eyes.

Chachamaru hopped swiftly and closed the distance. She meowed three times. Kazuki crossed his arms. Did she think that he could understand cat language, or was she still pissed about getting drenched by Amane?

She ran off again.

"Hey, wait!"

Kazuki followed her towards the village. He stopped as he looked at where the cat guided him.

So the cat wanted to be followed. Now it made sense why she ran away from him. Chachamaru jumped back on top of his head.

He arrived at a crowded house. All of the villagers seemed to be reunited at one residence. Strange, the people of this village were very busy just moments ago. What could have happened to get them riled up?

He walked towards the commotion, shoving people aside, ignoring their complaints. He looked inside the house.

Kazuki's eyes widened as he saw the disaster. He spotted signs of strange white thread scattered across the floor. He saw charred furniture, which looked like they were burnt with a substance other than fire. He covered his nose as he smelled the scent of rotten eggs. What could be the source of the smell? He could see that there was no blood inside, so he could assume that no one got killed here.

He turned to the crowd of villagers.

"Hey, does anybody know what happened here?!" he said loud enough for him to be heard. The muttering stopped and the villagers looked at him, some of them with curiosity, others with annoyance.

"Another family disappeared yesterday. It was odd that Satoshi didn't come to work today so I went to look at his house… only to find this. Oddly enough, his wife and two children also disappeared…" a male villager said, an old man in particular. He didn't hide his fear as Kazuki watched him tremble.

"Did anyone go out to look for them?"

"Well…" The old man scratched his head. "Several people did, mostly close friends of the missing people. No one came back. Fourteen people are missing from our village… I would not be surprised if they're found dead."

Kazuki placed a hand on his chin. People disappearing from their homes and not coming back? Sounds familiar. Could it be the work of a demon? He couldn't be sure, he needed more clues to see who or what could have done this.

He had one week before his test. What better way to practice for The Final Selection than by killing demons? He could totally do this.

However, if this wasn't the work of a demon, then he wouldn't do this. That kind of work belonged to the cops.

Kazuki nodded. "Thank you for telling me."

He went to inspect the walls that were the source of the foul smell from earlier. They were charred and seemed to be covered in some kind of substance.

He grabbed his sheathe and started to poke a piece of wood with it. Kazuki could see that this substance started to drip in a very slow manner. Its viscosity was high.

No fire did this. It was the product of acid.

Kazuki's curiosity spiked and went towards the white threads he saw earlier. Kazuki grabbed a piece of wood from the wreckage and started to poke the thread.

His eyes widened. The thread got stuck in the wood like glue!

It wasn't just a normal thread; it was part of a spider web. However, nothing suggested that it was part of a demon attack. He took the piece of wood outside. If a demon took part in this, then…

The thread dissolved into dust.

Kazuki grinned. So it was indeed the work of a demon!

He could practice for The Final Selection with this. Now he just needed a way to track the monster…

He went to the villagers who surrounded the house. He tried to let his voice be known, but it got overshadowed by the endless muttering. Kazuki sighed and took a deep breath.

"Total concentration breathing…"

The echo made from Kazuki's hands startled every single soul of the crowd. The muttering quickly stopped.

He didn't use a technique, but he focused his blood flow into his arms, increasing their strength. While using breathing techniques for mundane activities such as clapping could be seen as impractical, it was necessary in this case. He needed an effective way to control the crowd.

Kazuki took a deep breath as everyone's gazes turned on him.

"So." Kazuki coughed. "You guys seem to be afraid of something… do you perhaps know what happened to the family that lived here?"

Most people shook their heads. Some of them started to hide behind the crowd.

"I've been told that these weren't the only people that disappeared," Kazuki persisted. "Whatever did this isn't human. Please give me clues to whatever did this…"

The crowd started to disperse. Some of them laughed at how ridiculous that statement sounded. Not many people knew about the existence of demons, and those who knew were probably either dead or scarred for life. Kazuki gritted his teeth, cursing himself at how bad he was when talking to people. It almost made him flat out incompetent.

"If you guys give me clues, any clues, then people won't disappear again!" Kazuki shouted. Some people perked up at what he said, others ignored him and walked away. He sighed; he didn't have the charisma of his brother to speak with so many people.

"…Are you sure you are capable of stopping whatever is causing these disappearances?"

Kazuki's eyes widened as he saw the old man that he talked with earlier approaching him. He gazed at Kazuki with a cold and calculating gaze.

Kazuki didn't say anything, he just pulled out his sheathe from under his kimono and showed it to the old man.

"Ah, so you're one of those Demon Slayers I heard of." The old man grinned, placing both hands on his hips.

Kazuki nodded. While the slayers weren't recognized by the government, it wouldn't be surprising if people heard about a thing or two about them.

The old man's expression turned serious. "There have been rumors that there is a monster lurking at Mt. Natagumo. I suspect that the people that disappeared are being taken there. It's the closest forest to our village after all."

Kazuki blinked. "You mean a demon?"

"Monsters, demons… what's the difference?" The old man sighed, his face solemn. "I ain't sure how the slayers do their thing, but if it's true that a monster lurks in there, then don't hesitate to kill it, young man. This humble village asks you that favor."

He didn't need to state the obvious. This was his job now.

"Where is this mountain?"

"Go towards the main gate and keep moving forwards, you will come across the village's wheat fields. When you arrive there, you should see the mountain from afar."

Kazuki nodded and started to walk towards the main gate.

* * *

"We're here!"

"We know! You don't need to shout."

Junichiro let out an annoyed grunt at Kyojuro's antics. The demons that dwell in this forest must have heard his voice and would probably be on high alert.

The missions specified the word 'demons'. Plural.

It could be a spelling mistake but Kyojuro reassured him that that wasn't the case. Grammar was important when working inside the corps as any misinformation could mean the difference between life and death.

Demons working together? That would be a new but troublesome discovery. He felt eager to see what lay ahead.

However, Junichiro's confidence started to waver when Kyojuro, Kanao, and he arrived at the place where the mission was supposed to take place.

The Natagumo forest established itself to be one of the densest forests of Japan, being the place with most trees, nearly closed to a million. A huge place where it was easy to get lost and trapped by your opponents. Being nighttime meant that it would be very hard to see, which meant that he had to be extra careful when entering the forest.

He didn't lose confidence because he was scared, it was because the mission would take way longer than he expected! He wanted to return home as soon as possible, drink some sake, lay down on his futon, and call it a day. But maybe this mission could be fun? He hoped that the mission went that way.

He sighed. He always hated to work overtime. He expected more leisure time for being crippled.

"Charming place we have here, definitely not creepy at all," Junichiro muttered as he stretched his left arm.

"You should stop complaining about every single mission we're going!" Kyojuro shouted as he slapped his arm on his friend's back. "It's not like you hate them anyway."

"Guys…" Kanao started to speak up, tugging her brother's haori.

Junichiro puffed his face. "I ain't complaining, I'm just wary about a mission that we know nothing about."

"Or maybe, you're just lazy."

"Guys…" Kanao spoke again, her voice low.

Junichiro glared at the Flame Pillar, whose grin started to widen every second. "You won't be making smart comments like that when a demon rips you to shreds because of the lack of prior information...'"

"Going in blind with limited information is like 90 percent of Demon Slaying missions!"

"Yeah… that's true," Junichiro said as he placed his palm on his forehead.

Kanao tossed a coin in the air. The sound of the coin gathered the attention of the two pillars.

It landed on tails.

"Something wrong Kanao-chan?" Junichiro asked, turning his gaze towards her.

Kanao remained silent, which made Junichiro raise an eyebrow. Was she thinking of something important?

"You were going to say something?" Junichiro asked again.

Kanao looked at him with a sweet smile. "No."

Junichiro sent the most deadpan stare he could muster. Of course, she wasn't going to say anything…

Kyojuro chuckled as he shook his head, "Well, we need to find the missing slayers here. If we're lucky enough, they might still be alive. Do any of you have any leads on where we should start?"

"The information about the situation in this place was very vague. They just sent us here to kill the demons—plural, mind you—and that we should look for the missing people," Junichiro said. He then grinned. "But, luckily, yours truly sent the best crow to the scouting job. So you guys can thank me if you—"

"Save it, Junichiro," Kyojuro reprimanded. "We have to move fast! Or else more people will die!"

"Can you let me finish an explanation without destroying my eardrums?" Junichiro grumbled as he dug his finger into his ear. Kyojuro motioned him to continue.

The Ice Pillar whistled. The sound echoed through the entire forest.

Kyojuro tilted his head. "You told me to not shout and your whistling can be heard throughout the entirety of Japan?"

"I thought you of all people knew when not to take me seriously…" Junichiro said as he rolled his eyes.

Kanao looked to the sides. "Nii-san, it's Sakura—"

"Yep…" Junichiro said as he raised his only arm. In an instant, a big raven landed on his arm.

This particular bird didn't have the normal features as its common brethren. Its feathers were colored in magenta and it had a small butterfly pin on its head. This was the bird that belonged to the late Flower Pillar. Now, it belonged to Junichiro. These species were the fastest types of Corvus and the hardest to tame because of their short temper.

"Sakura, what's the situation?" Junichiro asked his feathered friend.

"Demons everywhere! Demons everywhere! There are slayers currently fighting demons on east and west from here. East and west! They are losing! They are losing!" it cawed.

"Any leads on the missing people?!" Kyojuro shouted. The bird raised its head and shrieked at The Flame Pillar, which made the latter recoil back.

Junichiro held his laughter. "You know that birds have sensitive hearing. Try asking her again without shouting."

"Of course." The Flame Pillar coughed. "Any leads on the missing people?"

Sakura blinked. "An abandoned hut north from here! North from here!"

The Ice Pillar nodded. "Thank you, Sakura. Please go report this information to The Young Master."

"Treat, Treat!"

Junichiro rolled his eyes. Kanao gave him a bunch of bread crumbs. He took them and showed them to the bird. It started to devour them.

"There you go, you glutton. Now hush!"

Satisfied, the bird flew away.

Junichiro scratched the back of his head. "Well, do you guys have any ideas?"

Kyojuro seemed the most eager to speak. "Surely! The way I see it, we have two choices. We can either go in a group and take all the threats by ourselves. This way, we can take them down effectively, but it will risk the others who need our help. The second one is to split up, which will reduce our chances of survival, but we can help each front and try to contain each threat on our own!"

"Which means that each one of us would be on our own…" Junichiro muttered. He shook his head. "I refuse to let Kanao-chan go alone. Let's go together."

Kyojuro's ever-present grin vanished as soon as he heard those words. "This again? Junichiro… Tsuyuri-chan is a Tsugoku, your Tsuguku! Be a good teacher and place trust in your student."

And lose another member of his family? Yeah, right, like he would let that happen. But Junichiro couldn't simply dismiss the Flame Pillar's remark. He was right, as much as he hated to admit.

He sighed. "Kanao, you go right. I'll catch up to you in a minute."

The Tsugoku nodded and stormed off towards the forest. It took less than ten seconds before she was out of sight.

Kyojuro whistled. "Whoa, there she goes. She's very fast don't you think?!"

"Hope you don't make me regret this…" Junichiro grumbled as he tapped his foot.

"Relax, she'll be fine! She's a very capable fighter you know?" Kyojuro said, grinning with confidence. "Besides, you didn't even hear what I said. I proposed that we should all split up and you just flat out said that you're going to catch up to her."

"I ain't slacking off if that's what you're worried about."

"I hope not, or else The Young Master will love to hear whatever you have to say!" Kyojuro said as he let out a mischievous grin.

A chill ran down through The Ice Pillar's spine as he thought about the scolding—and punishment—that would await if he took this easy. "Y-You wouldn't, right?"

"Oh, I most certainly would!"

"T-Then we both should get to work shall we?" Junichiro chuckled as he started to sweat profusely.

"Great! You guys go right, and I'll go to the abandoned hut to check for survivors!" Kyojuro shouted as he dashed forward into battle. "Good luck Junichiro!"

As Kyojuro vanished out of sight, the Ice Pillar sighed. He was certain that he would get a headache after this mission was over. Or maybe the demons here are strong and are going to give him a good time…

He grinned at that thought. If the demons here are strong, then he would enjoy this fight to the fullest.

* * *

"Koi-Koi"

A girl could be seen laying down hanafuda cards on her wooden table. She had short white hair with short bangs, and two large stripes on either side of her cheek which were very noticeable thanks to her sickly pale white skin. The most notable trait that made her stand out from humans were the two horns that were protruding from either side of her forehead and the sclera that surrounded her two grey eyes. She had a kanji sign engraved on her left eye.

_Lower Moon Four_

This girl was the head of one of the gambling houses of the rising yakuza criminal syndicate. While these secluded places started to dwindle after the leader of the family Chogoro Yamamoto died, its few remaining houses started to grow soon after the Meiji period ended. As the syndicate started to expand, its exploits started to become apparent. This woman abused these exploits to become one of the main heads of the gambling houses.

Her stature made her seem like a little girl at first, but those that underestimated her met their doom at the points of her teeth. She was no little girl.

Her main office was Japanese style, made with a tatami floor and sliding doors. Her office was carefully decorated with paintings of the deceased daimyo, Nobunaga Oda. It had red lanterns hanging on the ceiling. In the center of the office was a hardwood desk where the head of the house was sitting.

The girl seemed to be lost in her thoughts as she played with her cards.

The door slid open, revealing a bald man who wore a black yukata. He held a folder in his hands.

The girl's veins started to pop out of her forehead as she instinctively threw a card at the door. The man whimpered as the card grazed his cheek and blood started to pour out.

The girl relaxed her posture as she saw the trembling man.

"Oh, it's just you, Hiro." The girl sighed. "How many times should I tell you that you should knock first before entering?"

"I'm very sorry Mukago-sama, but this is important." The man bowed.

Mukago waved it off. "Tell me what you want."

Hiro raised his head as he walked towards Mukago, folder still in hand. He placed the folder on her desk.

"Look at this."

Mukago raised an eyebrow as she opened the folder. What could this folder contain that has the usually stoic Hiro so agitated? It couldn't be—

The demon widened her eyes. This couldn't be right.

She panted heavily as she skimmed through the pages of the folder.

"T-This can't be right…" Mukago said, her professional attitude breaking. "It's located inside of The Temple of Musashi? So its existence hasn't been lost forever?!"

Hiro shook his head. "We can't be sure, it's merely a myth. The contents inside of the temple are still unknown," he said. The bald man whimpered as the demoness shot him the deadliest of glares she could muster. "B-But, the quality of the soil of the land is questionable, it can't be found anywhere else in Japan! The flower is sure to be there."

Mukago took a deep breath and closed the folder. If this information was indeed true… then Muzan would be more than happy to share his blood with her.

She let out a sadistic grin and looked at his subordinate. The man recoiled at the intensity of her gaze.

"Return to Amakusa at once, look for more clues that can confirm the veracity of these texts," Mukago said, returning the folder to Hiro. "I can't return to _him_ with mere speculations. He would kill me for it."

"Understood, Mukago-sama. Have a nice day."

The man bowed and left the office in a hurry.

Mukago giggled uncontrollably. If she managed to get The Blue Spider Lily… Muzan would become a god.

And she would definitely be able to stand at his side. She wouldn't have to fear him ever again.

"It's just a matter of time…"

* * *

**What can I say... sorry? Well, at least I got the chapter done and I'll try to not delay it more than I already have. If you guys want to talk to me, here is the link to the writer's Discord server I'm staying: _kYCPuAw_**

**I thank 666-HyuugaNeji-999 for the beta. This would be a disaster to read without his help. **

**Before you leave, I'm gonna say something funny to all of you, this is something you should expect from future chapters. **

**Canon is fucked. **


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